The bookfair's first outing since 2023 is at Stanley Arts on Sunday 6 September. Free, no ticket, 11am, and it came to South Norwood because of the rent.

The London Radical Bookfair comes to South Norwood on Sunday 6 September, and it is free to walk into.

It is the fair’s first event for three years. The organisers are blunt about why it stopped: “The bookfair has been in hiatus since our last event in 2023 as the hire cost of venues has climbed and climbed” (London Radical Bookfair).

The venue that solved that problem is Stanley Arts, at 12 South Norwood Hill, SE25 6AB. It is a community arts venue, and it now has a London-wide event on its programme that used to happen elsewhere.

What is actually on

The fair is run by BookLove and Housmans Bookshop on behalf of the Alliance of Radical Booksellers. Entry is free and you drop in (Stanley Arts event listing).

Three things are running through the day:

  • Stalls, described by the organisers as “a stimulating mix of stalls, books, pamphlets, magazines and zines” on politics, history, feminism, anti-racism, climate justice, queer liberation, trade unionism, internationalism and community organising
  • BookLove Speaks, “a series of curated conversations” with what the organisers call an “incredible roster of speakers”. The speakers have not been named on the fair’s own page
  • The BookLove Carnival Children’s Zone, with “radical, inclusive and multicultural books”

One thing to check before you set off: the two official sources give different closing times. The fair’s own page says 11am to 5pm. Stanley Arts lists it as 11am to 6pm. Neither has corrected the other, so if you are coming late in the day, go by the venue.

Getting to Stanley Arts

The venue’s own travel page is specific (Stanley Arts: your visit):

  • Train: “just a five minute walk from Norwood Junction station, which has fast services to London Bridge, and direct trains to Victoria”
  • Bus: routes 196 and 410 stop directly outside. Routes 75, 157, 197 and 312 stop within a few minutes’ walk
  • Car parks: Station Road, Belgrave Road and Clifford Road, with free street parking on Southern Avenue and adjoining streets

Stanley Hall, the room the fair is in, has a separate wheelchair entrance. The venue says it is “the fifth and final entrance on your right as you are coming up the hill”, with an accessible toilet on the left inside that entrance (Stanley Arts: disability access).

Take your own coffee money into the town, not the building. The Stanley Social Cafe is listed as closed at weekends.

Check your trains that morning. Engineering work in the Peckham Rye area runs across Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September. Buses replace trains between London Bridge and Tulse Hill via Peckham Rye, and Southern’s all-stations service from London Bridge to East Croydon runs only between Tulse Hill and East Croydon (Southern: planned engineering work). Our Croydon roadworks and travel page has the fuller picture for that weekend.

The other free thing happening that afternoon

Across the borough in Selsdon, the Selsdon Community Fair runs the same day, 12pm to 4pm, at the Old Farleigh Road entrance to Selsdon Wood. The Selsdon Residents’ Association organises it, and its poster sets out the programme (SRA: Selsdon Community Fair poster):

  • 1pm: a gentle guided walk through the woods with the Friends of Selsdon Wood
  • 2pm: the choir Songsations
  • 2pm and 3pm: games for children, run by the Rotary

There are craft and food stalls through the afternoon, and the Scouts are doing the refreshments.

The two events do not clash badly. The bookfair opens at 11am and the Selsdon fair closes at 4pm, so both are possible on one day if you are willing to cross the borough.

What it means for you

Two free days out in the borough on the same Sunday, neither of which needs a ticket, is not a normal week in Croydon. Both are worth knowing about in advance rather than reading about afterwards.

For the bookfair, the useful thing to understand is that this is a London-wide event, not a Croydon one, and it is here because of what halls cost. Whether it comes back next year probably depends on how the day goes.

For Selsdon, this is the annual fair, run by the residents’ association, with the Scouts, the Rotary and the Friends of Selsdon Wood all taking a piece of it. The Old Farleigh Road entrance is the one to aim for, not the wood’s other gates.

More things to do across the borough are in our what’s on in Croydon guide.

Sources

Event details change. Confirm with the organisers before travelling. Checked 31 August 2026.