Blackwell's began trading on the 1st of January 1879 as a dealer in rare and secondhand books. Benjamin Henry Blackwell traded from a single tiny room which was all but filled by one chair and one customer. How times have changed: that room soon expanded into the main Blackwell's shop at 48-51 Broad Street, which now features inside it the largest room dedicated to bookselling in Europe. B. H. Blackwell issued Catalogue No. 1 upon opening the shop and quickly found buyers among the great and the good of Oxford. Among its many entries were fine books such as Loggan's Oxoniana illustrata - one of the most expensive of the catalogue's books at £5 - a first edition of Hobbes' Leviathan for 18s. and Piranesi's Le antichita romane (1651) in four volumes for £5/10/-. 
 
B. H. Blackwell soon acquired a reputation as a fine bookseller. In 1906, he was a founder member of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association, the oldest professional body of its kind. In 1912 he became its president, a tradition continued by his son, Sir Basil Blackwell, in 1925-26. Sir Basil, who became chairman of Blackwell's in 1924, had a great enthusiasm for fine printing and in 1920 purchased the Shakespeare Head Press. That superb typographer, Bernard Newdigate, produced many beautiful editions for the press, including Chaucer, Froissart, and Spencer, which are now themselves sought after by collectors.

During the following years Blackwell's Rare Books (formerly under the label of Blackwell's Antiquarian Department) occupied different premises in the centre of Oxford and latterly a beautiful manor house at Fyfield, before returning to the main Broad Street shop in 1999. We can still be found here on the second floor, displaying many fine books in collectable condition. Printed catalogues are still produced and sent all over the world, featuring some of the same books once sold by Benjamin Henry and Sir Basil, though they would surely never have dreamt of a presence on the internet.

Our shop is at the heart of the city of Oxford, home to the oldest university in the English-speaking world, and an attractive destination for many reasons. Next door to our shop is the Bodleian Library, one of the oldest libraries in Europe and the second-largest library in Britain. Across the street are Sir Christopher Wren’s Sheldonian Theatre and Nicholas Hawksmoor’s Clarendon Building, both architectural masterpieces and former homes of the Oxford University Press. Almost all the buildings on Broad Street are listed by English Heritage as being of significant historical importance, including the Blackwell's shopfront.

Blackwell's Rare Books
48-51 Broad Street
Oxford OX1 3BQ

Tel: 01865 333555
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: rarebooks.blackwell.co.uk

Opening hours: 9am to 6pm Monday to Saturday, except on Tuesday when we open at 9:30am.