Better Bookz- Simos's photos

Left : Bob Cobbing reading Poetry at Better Bookz. On the floor, Annea Lockwood (Photo by Simos Tsapnidis, London 1966)

Unique photos of the historic bookshop Better Bookz, made by Simos Tsapnidis , during his stay in London ( 1966-1967 ) .

Purchase excellent scans, from original films, Code : Better Bookz/Collection.

For the bookshop read the following text, written by Rozemin Keshvani.

In the 1950s and 1960s, London underwent a cultural revolution, which altered forever the trajectory of contemporary art and gave rise to a radical re-formulation of artistic production. United in their distrust of culture, the emerging generation of post-war artists, poets and writers were searching for new ways of responding to their alienation from the previous generation and the smothering geopolitical anxiety of the cold war.

Many of these artists found each other while taking refuge at Tony Godwin's Charing Cross bookshop, Better Books. Under the successive management of Bill Butler, Barry Miles, and Bob Cobbing, Better Books became guardian and sanctuary, platform and voice for the explosion of radical gesture in London, providing platform, meeting space, idea generator and voice for a host of avant-garde artists, poets, filmmakers, musicians, and writers.