Oxfam

Smells like old pages and quiet guilt

It’s technically a charity shop, but really it’s a portal to the 1970s and beyond. You walk in for a casual browse and suddenly you’re deep in a shelf of obscure war memoirs and out-of-print cookbooks with titles like Microwave Magic for One.

The prices vary wildly: 50p for a battered Penguin classic, £12.99 for a coffee table book on Scandinavian sheds. Go figure.

They’ve also started doing vinyl now, which means someone’s dad is in the corner pretending to casually flick through Fleetwood Mac while absolutely hoping someone’s watching.

Great for finding that book you didn’t know you needed. Even better for just standing around, breathing in second-hand knowledge and convincing yourself that buying five books is still charity.