The Open Guide to London: the free London guide

Forbidden Planet is a chain of science fiction and fantasy shops in England. There are separate shops with the same branding but different ownership in Scotland, Dublin, and New York.

The London Megatore is the largest of its kind in the world and the best place to find all kinds of cult entertainment goodies - books, comics, dvds, graphic novels and toys.

It's well worth a visit if you like science fiction and fantasy or comics.

It holds frequent book signing events which you'll find listed on the website http://www.forbiddenplanet.com

The London store is now in its third incarnation having moved from its long-time home in [New Oxford Street]? to Shaftesbury Avenue.

Layout and Range

It is now spread over two floors, with the upstairs holding all the toys and collectables, with comics, books, dvds, videos and games downstairs.

They stock a good range of new and recent comics, with a couple of boxes of back issues. (I reckon they've got a stack out the back that they top up the back issue boxes up with from time to time - Billy.) They don't bag the normal comics, but do have a selection of rare and signed books in a presentation stand, along with the weeks top books and a selection of highlighted authors/artists (this is generally Alan Moore, Grant Morrison and Alex Ross with an occasional addition when another big name visits or signs something). They also have a good selection of trade paperbacks and original graphic novels, as well as art books.

Their Sci-Fi and Fantasy section is well stocked with a bias to newer books and more recent reprints. They also have a good number (although not as many as in the old store) of imports from the US and a section of signed books.

The dvd section covers a wide range of random and not so random movies, focusing on sci-fi, fantasy, horror, martial arts and crime with quite a few japanese and hong kong produced titles. They are however not particularly cheap, but do have good offers from time to time.

In the back corner, is the manga section, which is well-stocked and includes a few Japanese language titles.

They also sell card games (magic, pokemon, etc) at the cash desk downstairs, and seem to have recently (sep 2004) starting stocking Munchkin and expansions and a few other card based games.

Special Offers

FP have an agreement with the Prince Charles Cinema - if you have a PCC annual membership card, then you get 10% off anything at FP.