The World’s Biggest Bookstore was a bookstore in Toronto, Canada, at 20 Edward St, just north of the Toronto Eaton Centre. Operating from 1980 until 2014, the three-storey store covered 64,000 square feet and was noted for its bright lights and over 20 kilometres of bookshelves.
Located in Portugal’s capital city Lisbon, Livraria Bertrand, founded in 1732, is the world’s oldest bookstore still in operation. El Ateneo Grand Splendid in Argentina may not be the biggest bookshop but it is the most beautiful.
Claim to Fame
When measured by the number of book titles offered for sale, the World’s Biggest Bookstore in Toronto was legitimately the world’s biggest. Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon doesn’t dispute the claims of others but stakes its claim to the “world’s largest” designation as “the largest independent used and new bookstore in the world.”
Waterstones Piccadilly in London claims to be the biggest bookstore in Europe. The shop is spread over six floors with more than eight miles of shelves, containing more than 200,000 titles.
Bookstore Giants by the Numbers
Although the Guinness Book of World Records listed the Barnes & Noble College Booksellers location on Fifth Avenue in New York City as the largest bookstore in the world based on floor space, Powell’s City of Books in Portland, Oregon claims to be the largest independent new and used bookstore with:
- 68,000 square feet of floor space
- Nine colour-coded rooms
- 3,500 different sections
- Over four million titles in inventory
Meanwhile, the Barnes Noble Bookstore at 105 Fifth Ave in New York City boasts:
- 154,250 square feet of floor space
- 12.87 miles of shelving
When it’s sunny, open-air book browsing can be enjoyed at outdoor kiosks around Central Park.