short of people who want to come in on this side,” Lachica-Duncan twitches, “but the understanding of Maison here is still that it’s a destination for culture. We don’t want people to think, ‘Well, I’m going there just to buy a book’.” He thinks it should be a destination, a place to while away an afternoon, where you can enjoy a glass of champagne, host an event (you can rent the bar for a £3,600 minimum spend, the whole ground floor and mezzanine for £7,000 or the building with the private room for £12,500) or, perhaps, get elbows deep and “redo your library”, he says. “It becomes more than just a little gift shop.”