Front of House · Cecil Court, WC2
Visit Cecil Court.
Our 4,200 square-foot showroom has occupied the same address in Cecil Court since the firm was founded in 1998. Inventory is held in plate-glass cabinets, sorted by hand, and opened to the trade and to members by appointment — six days a week, fifty-two weeks a year.
A first visit is normally arranged as a private viewing: ninety minutes, one of fourteen specialists, and the current consignment list set out on the table.
- Address
- Cecil Court, London WC2N 4EZ
- Hours
- Tue – Sat, 10:00 – 18:00
- Telephone
- +44 20 7946 0817
A short history of the street
A walk-through court, a 27-year tenancy.
Cecil Court was laid out in the years following the Great Fire of 1666 as one of London's first pedestrian walk-through courts — a narrow paved spine running between Charing Cross Road and St Martin's Lane, lit from above by the upper storeys of the Cecil House tenement. By 1900 it had become the centre of the London print and engraving trade; by 1960 it had drifted, as streets do, into a quieter retail character. Today it is one of the few central London courts still anchored by independent small businesses — antiquarian booksellers, map dealers, two violin makers, a single remaining tobacconist, and, at the Charing Cross Road end, the Withnail & I showroom.
The firm took the lease at Number 6 in the autumn of 1998, six months after Margaret Holroyd and David Pryce had set out the cataloguing room in what had previously been a clockmaker's workshop. The lease has been renewed twice; the fascia has been regilded twice; the brass door-plate was engraved once and is now, in places, worn through to the mahogany. The address has not changed.
Members travelling from outside London are often surprised by the court itself — the noise of Charing Cross Road falls away within a few paces of the entrance, and the only traffic inside is foot. Visitors from the V&A, the Met, and the Rijksmuseum have all, at one point or another, made the journey principally to see the room, rather than the stock.
— From the editorial note in Vol. XXVII, 2024.
Six Plates · The Showroom
The 4,200 sq ft, as it stands.
Photographed for the Spring 2025 issue by Ines Tomalin-Brodie. Plates appear in the order a visitor encounters them on a first appointment.
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Fig. 02 The long gallery — vitrines of Georgian silver and small furniture. -
Fig. 03 The silver room — one of fourteen collector's drawers. -
Fig. 04 The ceramics library — 1,840 reference volumes on the open shelves. -
Fig. 05 The consignment sorting bench — the room where new arrivals are first logged.
Two further plates — the members' reference library and the front window at dusk — appear in the print edition, Spring 2025. Copies available in the showroom.
Practical Information
Planning a first visit.
The showroom is open by appointment, six days a week. Members of the Curators' Club are prioritised in the booking diary; non-members are warmly received on referral or by application to [email protected].
Hours & Access
- Tuesday – Saturday10:00 – 18:00
- Sundays & Bank HolidaysBy private arrangement
- MondayClosed — consignment sorting
- AppointmentsBooked in 90-minute slots
- Step-free accessAvailable, please request
- Late viewingsThursdays until 20:00
Finding Us
- Nearest tubeLeicester Square · 2 min
- AlternativeCharing Cross · 4 min
- RailCharing Cross · 4 min
- AirLondon City · 45 min by car
- ParkingWhitcomb Street NCP · 3 min
- HotelHazlitt's, Soho — 5 min
On arrival, please ring the brass bell at No. 6. A specialist will meet you in the front gallery and offer tea before taking you into the rooms most relevant to your collecting interest. Members may bring one guest at no charge; subsequent guests by prior arrangement.
Consigning to the Curators' Club
A route in for executors & trade dealers.
Withnail & I receives consignment from 230 UK estate executors, probate solicitors, and a small number of trade dealers. The procedure differs from public auction: items are offered privately to the membership before any reach the open market. Three steps, in order.
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Step I
Initial telephone triage.
A 20-minute call with our consignments clerk. Bring a list — even a rough one — of items, approximate counts, and any provenance papers. We will tell you within the call whether a consignment is suited to the Club or whether a public-house route would serve the estate better. No fee, no obligation.
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Step II
Inspection — on-site, or photographed.
Within Greater London and the Home Counties a specialist attends in person; further afield we accept high-resolution photographic submissions followed, where appropriate, by a single-visit inspection trip at our cost. Each item is logged against our 47-point provenance and condition review.
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Step III
Offer, contract, settlement.
A written offer is issued within fourteen working days of inspection, followed by a standard consignment agreement. Settlement is remitted by bank transfer within thirty days of the buyer's cleared payment, with a single-page statement detailing the membership-matching log. Of the 31,500 items offered to us in 2024, 38% were accepted.
Colophon · Spring 2025 Issue
Book a private viewing.
The next available 90-minute slot is on Thursday at 14:30. We will write to confirm a specialist, a room, and a short list of pieces drawn against your collecting interest.
The Showroom
Withnail & I Ltd.
Cecil Court
London WC2N 4EZ
United Kingdom
Tuesday – Saturday · 10:00 – 18:00
Thursdays until 20:00
Sundays & Bank Holidays by arrangement
Direct Lines
+44 20 7946 0817
[email protected]
For consignment: option 2
For press: option 3
Awards & Press
Antiques Trade Gazette
'Trade Publication of the Year'
2018 · 2021 · 2023
BBC Radio 4 · Loose Ends
47 appearances, 2009 – 2024
W · & · I — Est. MDCXCVIII