Bookseller Crow on the Hill

Booksellers high on a hill Taking its name not just from a handy surname but also from the presence of the arrogant, curious and intelligent birds that scavenge prolifically in Crystal Palace park and thereabouts, the shop perched atop one of the many local hills was established in 1997. Once an unloved backwater – it suffers the ignominy of straddling the budgetry peripheries of five London boroughs – Upper Norwood has recently found its feet and the shop has somehow found itself at the centre of a busy, discerning community and its stock on the shelves and attitude on the shop floor reflects this. Twee, kowtowing, conventional it ain’t. Heavy on modern fiction, American lit and crime, the shop also has a big children’s section, stocks whatever can be got hold of on local history, has a penchant for decent cookery titles and graphic novels.