16 stores · curated ORBIS register
Out-of-print Africana and sports books are sold at Select Books, which moved from Long Street to Harfield Village in 2018. On the peninsula, Kalk Bay Books hosts author conversations and launches at its Main Road premises alongside fiction and nonfiction. Botanical subjects shape the range at Kirstenbosch Bookshop, where books on flora and gardens accompany natural-history titles. The garden bookshop also stocks children's books and stationery at the Visitors' Centre, with a smaller Gate 2 outlet.
V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
Art@Africa is a gallery on the 1st Floor of the Clocktower Centre, Silo District, V&A Waterfront, selling paintings, drawings, sculptures, collectable prints, functional art and art books from artists including Barney Bernardo, David Griessel and Kara Schoeman. It also curates art at two wine estates in addition to the waterfront gallery.
Best for Original paintings sculpture and prints
199 Long Street, Cape Town 8001, South Africa / Cape Town / South Africa
Long Street's independent bookshop in Cape Town - books, magazines and paper goods.
Best for Independent books, magazines and paper goods on Long Street.
62 Main Road, Kalk Bay, Cape Town 7975, South Africa / Cape Town / South Africa
Kalk Bay Books continues to host author conversations and launches at its Main Road shop. The events calendar gives the small peninsula bookseller a cultural role beyond shelving new fiction and nonfiction.
Best for Author conversations, launches, new fiction and nonfiction.
Cape town / South Africa
The Botanical Society Bookshop at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden's Visitors' Centre sells books on flora, gardens, fauna, and natural history, plus children's titles, stationery, and gift cards, open daily from 9am to 6pm. A smaller satellite shop at the Centre for Home Gardening (Gate 2) carries the same range, and Botanical Society members get a 10% discount at both.
Best for Books, gifts, stationery, botanical
Cape town / South Africa
At the Norval Foundation in Tokai, Cape Town, the shop sells locally designed books, exhibition posters, and artist-inspired objects such as William Kentridge-referencing beadwork, with about 80% of merchandise made in South Africa. It also runs an Artist Edition Programme selling original and limited-edition prints and sculptures in-store, with proceeds supporting the Foundation's exhibitions.
Best for Art, museum shop, books, prints
Kalk Bay, Cape Town
Founded in 1990 and still family-owned, the shop at 64 Main Rd, Kalk Bay sells rare and antiquarian books, art and collectibles covering Africana, natural history, biography, art and architecture, travel and modern first editions, along with maps, prints and ephemera. It also performs valuations and buys consignments.
Best for Rare books maps and prints
Cape Town
Roastin' Records stocks vinyl records across decades and genres, from hard to find pressings to contemporary releases. The shop also sells CDs, cassettes, Pro-Ject turntables, accessories and books, both online and in-store.
Best for Vinyl records, CDs, cassettes and Pro-Ject turntables
56 Surrey Street, Harfield Village, Cape Town 7708, South Africa / Cape Town / South Africa
Official site (visited 2026-08-25) still trades out-of-print Africana and sport books from Harfield Village and prints '1986–2026 / Yes, 40 years of Select Books'; founder member of SABDA. AntiquarianAuctions.com seller page: established on Long Street in 1986; relocated to Harfield Village in 2018; still issues Africana catalogues.
Best for Independent books and paper goods.
71 Roeland Street, Cape Town 8001, South Africa / Cape Town / South Africa
Cape Town's Roeland Street bookshop: independent, with magazines and paper alongside the books.
Best for Independent books, magazines and paper goods on Roeland Street.
Parkwood, Johannesburg
Located at 151 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood, Johannesburg, the store is described as a specialist arts bookstore, skills-sharing hub and community of creatives, selling books on art, architecture, design, photography and South African titles, and also offers framing services.
Best for Art and design books
Soweto, Johannesburg
Soweto Book Café's Instagram bio describes it as a bookshop, library, hub and information centre that also runs a book club and hosts book launch events. It also describes itself there as a tourist attraction.
Best for Books and community book events
Braamfontein, Johannesburg
Located at 14 Reserve Street at the corner of De Korte in Braamfontein, The Commune describes itself as a Pan-African, socialist and feminist bookstore and coffee shop that also stocks records focused on African music, and hosts book launches, talks, film screenings and DJ sets.
Best for African-focused books and records
Stellenbosch / South Africa
Waterford Estate is a working winery in Stellenbosch's Blaauwklippen Valley, growing and bottling its own reds, whites, and sparkling wines beneath the Helderberg Mountain and selling them through its own online shop as well as at the estate. Visitors can also book cellar tours and tastings, but the wine itself, from the flagship blend The Jem to the Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, is the estate's own product for sale.
Best for Wine, winery, tasting room
Franschhoek, South Africa
Belgian-trained chocolatiers Danver Windvogel and Denver Adonis hand-make truffles, slabs and ganaches, including a white-wine filling, at this shop on Franschhoek's main street. A bookable open-kitchen chocolate experience runs tastings and live demonstrations.
Best for Hand-made truffles and the chocolate experience
Paarl / South Africa
Unieke Antieke is one of South Africa's largest antiques and collectibles dealers, trading since 2003 from its premises at 171 Main Street in Paarl. It sells thousands of items, from die-cast models and coins to silverware and books, in-store, online, and through monthly no-reserve auctions.
Best for Antiques, collectibles, die-cast models, coins
Silo District, V&A Waterfront
The shop at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa stocks art books, limited-edition prints, jewellery and design objects tied to the museum's focus on contemporary African art. Housed in Thomas Heatherwick's converted grain silo, it favours work by African artists and independent makers.
Best for African art books and design objects
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