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Voltaire & Rousseau – Second-Hand Books and Soup

A few hours, from Buchanan Street Subway and back.

The route

Tucked away down Otago Lane in the West End, Voltaire & Rousseau is a second-hand bookshop of the old kind, crammed from floor to ceiling with ladders, leaning towers of books and rare finds waiting to be spotted.

Lose an hour or so in its aisles, then wander through Hillhead to Naked Soup, a little café that the team at Hoos, a West End homeware shop, love for its soups and bagels. It's a slow morning that works whatever the weather.

Before you go

  1. Book accommodation nearby

    If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.

    The nearest of ours is Moment Blythswood Street. Sleeps 2.

The day

Glasgow

A quiet morning of browsing in a characterful bookshop, a short walk through the West End's sandstone streets, and a warm bowl of soup to finish.

About three hours

  1. Voltaire & Rousseau

    Voltaire & Rousseau

    A shop

    Take the Subway from Buchanan Street to Kelvinbridge (check the times), then it's 4 minutes' walk to Otago Lane, a little lane that was once home to horses, blacksmiths and workshops. Voltaire & Rousseau is at 12 to 14 Otago Lane, open Monday to Saturday from 10am to 6pm. Inside are floor-to-ceiling shelves, wooden ladders and stacks of books piled along the floor, with rare and collectible editions among the everyday ones. The aisles are narrow, so leave the pushchair outside if you can.

    More about Voltaire & Rousseau

  2. 12 min on foot

    Naked Soup

    Naked Soup

    Soup

    From the bookshop it's 12 minutes' walk west by Gibson Street into Hillhead to Naked Soup, a small café by day with soups, bagels and baking. It opens every day from 10am: until 5pm on Mondays and Tuesdays, 11pm on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, and midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Karen Harvey, who runs the Hoos homeware shop on Great Western Road, calls it a favourite for its soup and bagels by day. Hillhead Subway is 8 minutes' walk away for the ride home.

    More about Naked Soup

If it rains

A good one for a wet morning: the bookshop and the café are both indoors, with short walks between.

Naked Soup