Big Box Bookstore of the 1790s
Charles Knight in Shadows of the Old Booksellers (published in 1865) tells us of a bookshop in Finsbury Square, Moorgate, named ‘The Dome of the Muses’ belonging to bookseller James Lackington:
"A dome rises from the centre, on top of which a flag is flying…Over the principal entrance is inscribed "Cheapest Booksellers in the World’…We enter the vast area, whose dimensions are to be measured by the assertion that a coach and six might be driven round it. In the centre is an enormous circular counter…We ascend a broad staircase, which leads to ‘The Lounging Rooms’, and to the first of a series of circular galleries, lighted from the lantern of the dome, which also lights the ground floor. Hundreds, even thousands of volumes are displayed on shelves running round their walls. As we mount higher and higher, we find commoner books, in shabbier bindings; but there is still the same order preserved, each book being numbered according to a printed catalogue."
from The Book Browser’s Guide by Roy Harley Lewis.
