Had been meaning to buy two books online for ages, but thought I'd check with Red Lion on the off chance they may have them as I always try to support my local high street. Was very shocked when they came back to say that they had both, as neither were new/popular books, and one pretty obscure translated fiction! They kindly put them aside and I was incredibly happy to pick them up the next day 🙂

An excellent independent bookshop. It has a rare feature which most indie bookshops don't - it is both immaculately curated and stocks a very wide range of titles. I visited around a dozen indie bookshops across four cities and towns in June, and Red Lion was the only place which stocked most of the recently published fiction by indie presses which I wanted to buy. However, the bookshop really serves the community as a whole, not just literary readers with niche tastes - the A Level core texts are helpfully placed on a separate self and the shop has a wide selection of YA and children's books, as well. A model indie bookshop.

An amazing bookshop, a little gem in the heart of Colchester. Everyone that works there is so kind and willing to help you find a book that suits you, but they're not afraid to suggest new genres once they get to know you! 💜☺️

Love this bookshop, always manage to get what i want, and even sometimes what I didn't know I wanted. Lovely shop. Helpful staff, would definitely recommend you pop in for a few minutes and then stay a lot longer.

Lovely place to browse for books... always helpful when I've been in...

Went in for the first time and bought a beautiful hardback that I hadn’t seen before. lovely staff & very reasonably priced!