Cambridge, the university city in Cambridgeshire, England, keeps two long-established second-hand dealers in St Edward's Passage, a narrow lane a minute from Market Square. G. David, whose founder started out on the market in 1896, and the Haunted Bookshop sit across the churchyard of St Edward King and Martyr from each other; Bodies in the Bookshop on Botolph Lane is a few steps from St Botolph's Church on Trumpington Street, which runs book sales of its own, and the Oxfam bookshop is on Sidney Street just north of the market. Where a price appears, read it as sterling.
East of the centre, Mill Road has the Amnesty bookshop at its city end, St Barnabas Church, where the PBFA's antiquarian fair has settled, and the RSPCA's bookshop further out in Romsey, the three spread along roughly half a mile. Across the river to the north, the Museum of Cambridge on Castle Street puts on a courtyard book sale on Saturday 24 October 2026, and two market towns earn the drive: St Ives, some 12 miles to the north-west, for Riverport Books, and Royston, about as far to the south-west, for Bow Books.
Market Square itself is due for an upheaval. The council's planning committee approved its redesign on 2 September 2026, Cabinet and Full Council are due to take the final decision in autumn 2026, and the council says building could start from January 2027 and last about 12 months, with the traders moved onto nearby streets in the meantime.
Antiquarian and second-hand booksellerG. David Bookseller
16 St Edward's Passage, Cambridge CB2 3PJ
Gustave David, a 36-year-old Parisian, began buying and selling books on Cambridge Market in 1896 and went on to open this shop in St Edward's Passage with his son; the firm's history page notes that the market stall stopped trading in 1981 while the shop carried on. Antiquarian volumes, second-hand stock and new books at reduced prices share the shelves with antiquarian prints, maps and original engravings of Cambridge and its colleges. Stars and Stripes, touring the city's bookshops in a piece published on 6 March 2026, described floor-to-ceiling shelves and piles of antique books here, and the shop asks anyone with a single book or a whole collection to make contact and arrange a valuation.
Hours: Tue–Sat 10am–4pmWebsite Children's and illustrated books, second-handThe Haunted Bookshop (Sarah Key Books)
9 St Edward's Passage, Cambridge CB2 3PJ
Sarah Key Books, a specialist in children's and illustrated titles since 1987, has occupied this tiny former pub in St Edward's Passage since 1993, a few seconds from King's College Chapel by the shop's own account. When Stars and Stripes called in for its 6 March 2026 article, two cramped floors were overflowing with mostly second-hand children's and illustrated books, and a note in the window asked visitors to use the knocker and give the bookseller a minute. Beyond its specialism the shop buys first editions, antiquarian titles, poetry, academic books, Folio Society, theology and ephemera, and wants a call or message on 07720 146679 before anyone brings books in.
Hours: Mon–Sat 10am–5pmWebsite Oxfam BookshopOxfam Bookshop Cambridge
28 Sidney Street, Cambridge CB2 3HW
The Sidney Street branch of Oxfam, which specialises in books and music, bills itself as an Aladdin's cave for book, film and music buffs, with donated vinyl in classical and pop, academic titles and collectables on top of general reading. Stars and Stripes, writing on 6 March 2026, found it small, its shelves holding gently used books of every kind, textbooks and local travel guides among them. Oxfam's branch page says the shop trades daily but leaves the times blank, so check with the shop on 01223 313373 if your visit hangs on it.
Amnesty BookshopBooks For Amnesty
4 Mill Road, Cambridge CB1 2AD
Amnesty International's Cambridge bookshop opened at the city end of Mill Road in 1998 and is run by volunteers, says its branch page, which lists strengths in art, philosophy, history and the social sciences along with rare titles, Greek and Latin texts, sheet music, maps and a foreign-language section. On Monday 20 July 2026 the shop's Instagram account announced an art book sale at £1 a copy or three for £2. Everything is on one level with a small step at the door, and the Queen Anne Terrace car park on Gonville Place is a four-minute walk away.
Hours: Mon–Sat 11am–5pm, Sun noon–4pmWebsite Where can I find cheap used books in Cambridge?
Keep an eye on the one-day sales. Books For Amnesty priced its art books at £1, or three for £2, in a July 2026 sale; St Botolph's Church documented book sales on 1 August and 17 October 2026 and announced another for 29 August; and the Museum of Cambridge's courtyard sale on 24 October 2026 raises money for the museum. G. David also keeps new books at reduced prices next to its antiquarian shelves, and Riverport Books in St Ives was selling Marvel and DC hardbacks at £5 each, or five for £20, in June 2026.
Where do I sell used books in Cambridge?
Start with the dealers who say they buy. G. David values single books and collections on request, Sarah Key Books at the Haunted Bookshop takes children's and illustrated titles, first editions, poetry and Folio Society after a phone call, the St Ives shop Riverport buys collections of any age and assesses them midweek, and Bow Books in Royston lists rare and vintage books as bought and sold. What the dealers pass over can be sold through Vinted if it's popular fiction, or listed singly on eBay.co.uk, keeping Amazon.co.uk for anything scarcer, and the leftovers make a welcome donation to Books For Amnesty or the Sidney Street Oxfam. A tip before ringing round: one BiblioScan snap of the bookcase gives a second-hand value against every spine it identifies, which settles whether a dealer is worth calling.
Are there any used book fairs in Cambridge?
One antiquarian fair, run under the PBFA banner in a Mill Road church, St Barnabas. Its next edition is set for Friday 19 and Saturday 20 February 2027, with £2 entry and some 70 dealers expected. Before then, put the museum's courtyard sale of 24 October 2026 in the diary and watch St Botolph's for its next church sale.
Which charity shops have books in Cambridge?
Two charity shops in the centre deal mainly in books: the Oxfam bookshop on Sidney Street and Books For Amnesty at the top of Mill Road, with the RSPCA's own bookshop at 188 Mill Road a little further out. The Arthur Rank Hospice shop on Regent Street, whose manager listed books among her stock in May 2025, adds a general shop with shelves of its own. On Burleigh Street the Oxfam and RSPCA shops mention books too, while Scope had none on the shelves in February 2026.
Which day is best for book hunting in Cambridge?
Saturday, since all the shops listed here that publish opening times trade that day, from the two St Edward's Passage dealers to the out-of-town shops in St Ives and Royston, and every St Botolph's sale documented in 2026 fell on a Saturday, as does the museum's sale on 24 October. Sunday is thinner: the Haunted Bookshop, G. David, Bow Books and Riverport stay shut, though Bodies in the Bookshop, Books For Amnesty, the Regent Street hospice shop and the market trade. Monday loses G. David and Bodies in the Bookshop, and Tuesday loses Riverport.