McNaughtan’s Bookshop History
Founded by Major John McNaughtan and his wife Marjorie following the Major’s retirement from the army, the shop first occupied rented premises before moving to its long-standing home at Haddington Place in 1957. Over the decades, McNaughtan’s steadily built a reputation as one of the finest places in Edinburgh to buy and sell old books. After the Major’s death in 1972, Mrs McNaughtan continued the business alone before eventually passing it to assistant Elizabeth Strong in 1979.
Under Elizabeth Strong’s ownership, the shop became even more closely associated with the international antiquarian book trade. She later served as President of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association and played a major role in bringing the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers Congress and book fair to Edinburgh in 2000. In 2015, the business passed to Derek Walker and Anna Fomicheva, formerly of Blackwell’s in Oxford, who continue to run the shop today.
McNaughtan’s remains a member of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association, the world’s oldest trade body for antiquarian booksellers, and the shop still upholds the traditional values of expertise, fair dealing, and careful scholarship associated with the trade. Alongside rare and collectable works, visitors will also find thousands of second-hand books lining the shelves — many of which are not listed online and can only be discovered by browsing in person.
Part of the pleasure of visiting McNaughtan’s lies in the building itself. The shop occupies two “laigh” or low-level units within an elegant 1825 New Town tenement designed by architect Robert Brown. The Grade A-listed building forms part of an ambitious but only partially completed expansion of Edinburgh’s New Town onto land once associated with the city’s old botanic gardens. Inside, the rooms feel delightfully traditional, with shelves filled with books acquired over decades from other historic Edinburgh bookshops and auctions.
