Poetry Pharmacy in Oxford Street
The Poetry Pharmacy comes to London!
Following the success of our satellite at Lush Studio Soho at the end of 2023, we are delighted to have found a more permanent home for the Poetry Pharmacy inside the Lush Spa on Oxford Street. Our emporium of bookish delights, literary gifts, and poetical remedies for the restoration of the self can be found on the first floor, along with our Dispensary Coffee Shop, which serves freshly ground coffee supplied by Shropshire roasters Hundred House Coffee and a range of delightful teas from the Good and Proper Tea company. Our new London team is managed by the wonderful Maya Rowland. A massive thank you to our hosts at the Lush for helping us put it all together!
Opening Hours
Monday - Saturday 10am - 9pm
Sunday 12pm - 6pm
Dispensary Coffee Shop 10am to 7pm
and 12pm to 6pm on Sunday
Now that our Oxford Street branch is up and running, there are so many exciting things on the horizon, from events to collaborations. Although it's very early days, we can't wait to share! Deb has been working on a book with Mark Constantine which is due to be published in November, and which charts our journey to Oxford Street and gives valuable advice to small business owners in the form of poetry prescriptions - of course. We have a new bottle of Radical Rest poetry pills made in collaboration with Evie Muir to celebrate the upcoming release of her amazing new book of the same name.
We're also planning on hosting events in Oxford Street soon, starting with an Arachne Press event to launch their book Joy//Us, and a new Queer Reading group (watch this space for details!), as well as some exciting Reading Evenings with publishers of world renowned poetry. We're working with Liz Ison on new Poetry Walks which will explore literary London, and lastly, we're excited to share some news about a forthcoming project with Macmillan!
To keep up with developments do make sure you're following us on social media - you can find us here on instagram, and here on tiktok where our London team have been posting lots of excellent content! And of course, you can sign up to our newsletter on the front page.
EVENTS IN OXFORD STREET
7th July 12 - 6pm
Jen Feroze and her vintage typewriter will be on site in Oxford Street to compose on-the-spot poems for you.
24th July 6.30pm
Join us for a reading in celebration of queer joy with Arachne Press in our Oxford Street shop.
Meet our new Oxford Street team
Maya Rowland is passionate about well-being and literature, started out as a bookseller and our productions manager in Shropshire, before moving to London and becoming the manager of our Oxford Street branch.
Godelieve de Bree was a member of the Roundhouse Collective 22/23, and a T.S. Eliot Prize Young Critic 2023. Some of her favourite poets include Marie Howe, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, and Larry Levis.
Lucie Richter Mahr is a poet and researcher based in London. Her work has appeared in Magma, Lighthouse Journal, and Propel Magazine. When not stacking books and making coffee in the Pharmacy, she can be found co-producing the literary podcast 'A Reading Life, A Writing Life'.
We were delighted to feature an episode of A Reading Life, A Writing life on our newsletter recently - you can listen to it at this link!
Frankie Parris is a writer, musician and filmmaker living in London. Frankie uses poetry to make sense of themselves and the world around them, reflecting on identity, madness, love and liminality. When they’re not at the Poetry Pharmacy or wandering the city, you can find them watching French New Wave or learning about Scandinavia.
Jack spent two years working in the visual effects industry before leaving to follow more literary pursuits. He is a member of northern writers’ group The Writing Squad, and is helping create engaging content for the Poetry Pharmacy’s fast-growing Tiktok account
Patrizia Longhitano (she/her) is a pansexual Latinx immigrant poet and visual artist who lives in London. Her childhood was spent between Brazil and Italy. Some of her poems have appeared in Magma, Wet Grains, Painted Spoken, Harana Poetry Magazine, Un Nuevo Sol anthology and the album ‘We Will Keep On’.
She is currently the host of Venn Diagrams, a monthly poetry event in Kentish Town and co-editor of the Magma - Grassroots issue.
Katie Dunstan is fascinated by poetry, in particular the power it has to connect, to heal and to document the lives we live. She has a background in civic participation with a particular focus on growing peoples creative confidence to make change. She is the co-founder and host of The Poetry Lounge (@thepoetryloungelondon) - an open mic night in Highgate, facilitator and poet. Her work has been published in Ten Poems of Hope by Candlestick Press (2023) and is upcoming in Magma (Performance ed.) She loves the colour yellow.
How the collaboration with Lush came about...
11th December 2021 – email message via website
Hello there
I was a judge in the recent Holly and Co competition, and I wanted you to win. Disappointing.... now everything is out of stock? Doubly disappointing. If it’s not out of stock but a system error and you would like to sell me stuff drop me a line. Mark Constantine x
This came out of the blue after the Poetry Pharmacy had been on an Independent Business Award shortlist for the High Street Shop award in a competition run by entrepreneur and champion of small businesses Holly Tucker. We had no idea that Lush were judging us and had come as secret shoppers earlier in 2021.
So started a developing friendship with Mark, and then more widely, members of the Lush team with our tiny business in Bishop’s Castle in Shropshire. We were absolutely over the moon to have been invited to take over the Lush London HQ front-of-house in Beak Street at the end of 2023, and so grateful to all our good friends at Lush who generously created the space and supported us along the way! Maya is the face of the Poetry Pharmacy at Lush and now manages our new Poetry Pharmacy inside the Lush Spa on Oxford Street. You're warmly welcome to come and see us there!