Bookshops in Lincoln: what each one stocks, and who actually owns it
Central Lincoln has five bookshops trading today, and they are five different kinds of business. Lindum Books on the Bailgate is the owner-run independent for new books. Steep Hill Books is run by a local history charity and has the deepest Lincolnshire shelf anywhere. Oxfam on Cornhill is the big second-hand stock. Unicorn Tree Books in St Benedict’s is the Christian bookshop with a general shelf. Waterstones on the High Street is the chain.
Each entry says what the shop stocks and who is behind it, with the source, so you can decide where your money goes. Checked 13 September 2026.
Owner-run independent
- Lindum Books, Bookshop4 Bailgate, LN1 3AE. Stocks a curated selection of new books, including children’s titles, runs book clubs and reading groups, and takes National Book Tokens. It opened in April 2014, founded by Sasha Drennan. It trades without a limited company, so there is no Companies House record to quote — which is common for a single owner-run shop, and is why the owner is named here from the shop’s own launch rather than from the register. This is the one to pick if you want a new book bought from an independent in person.
Run by a charity
Both of these are second-hand-led and every penny of profit goes to the charity behind them, but they are very different shops.
- Steep Hill Books, Bookshop2–3 Steep Hill, at the top of the Strait, in the Jews’ Court building. Run by the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, registered charity 1182569, since 1988. It sells the society’s own publications and new books on Lincolnshire’s heritage and on family and local history — the society describes its Lincolnshire collection as the largest anywhere — alongside second-hand fiction and non-fiction, maps and postcards. All the second-hand stock is donated by members and friends; the society does not buy books. The two rooms are named after Thora Wagstaffe, who first set the shop up with her father, and Don Dowson, who started the second-hand sales. Open Wednesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm.
- Oxfam Bookshop, Bookshop5 Cornhill, in the Cornhill Quarter. Oxfam GB’s own specialist bookshop, so the ownership is the charity itself. A large general second-hand stock, donated rather than bought, across every genre, with music, vinyl and sheet music as well. Open seven days a week. The pick for browsing cheaply, and the one most likely to have the paperback you were going to buy new.
Independent, ownership not confirmed on the register
- Unicorn Tree Books, BookshopSt Benedict’s Church Centre, St Benedict’s Square, LN5 7AR. A Christian bookshop that also carries general fiction and non-fiction, second-hand books and children’s books, alongside cards, gifts and church supplies. It moved into St Benedict’s in April 2022 when Lincoln Central Market, its previous home, closed, and it took part in the Lincoln Book Festival in 2025 as an independent bookshop. We could not match it to a company on the Companies House register, so its ownership is stated as unconfirmed rather than guessed at.
The chain
- Waterstones, Bookshop297a High Street, LN2 1AF, in the former Saracen’s Head Hotel. New books across the full chain range. Waterstones is not an independent: it is part of the same group as Foyles, Blackwell’s and Hatchards, and we traced who owns that group through its Companies House filings. Listed here because it is a real bookshop in the centre and leaving it out would make this page less useful, not more honest.
If you are buying rather than browsing
For a new book, the choice is between Lindum Books and Waterstones, and the difference that this page can vouch for is where the money ends up. For anything second-hand, start at Oxfam for general stock, and at Steep Hill Books for anything with a connection to Lincolnshire. If what you actually want is a recommendation rather than a shop, Highstreett’s book search starts from a sentence you write and routes its buy links through Bookshop.org, which shares its profit with independent bookshops.
Where to go next
Lindum Books is one stop on the Bailgate guide, shop by shop. And if you mostly buy books online, independent bookshops against Amazon sets out what changes when you do.
How this was checked
Every shop above was confirmed as trading in September 2026 from a source it or its owner controls: Lindum Books’ own stockist listing with National Book Tokens, which is also where its Bailgate address comes from; the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology’s own page for Steep Hill Books, last edited June 2025; Oxfam’s shop listing; and Unicorn Tree Books’ listings and festival programme. Ownership comes from the Charity Commission register for the society, from the Companies House register where a company exists, and from our own ownership page for Waterstones. Where a register returned nothing we could match with confidence, the entry says so.
Two names are deliberately missing. Readers Rest on Steep Hill is still widely listed as a second-hand bookshop, but we found no current evidence that it is trading, so it is left out rather than sending you up the hill to a shut door. The Storyteller, the St Barnabas Hospice book shop, is in North Hykeham rather than central Lincoln, so it is outside this page’s area. General charity shops with a shelf of books are not included.