AN independent book­shop that has been a staple store in West Hampstead for 32 years was attacked in an egging causing nearly £1,000 in damages.

West End Lane Books, the store owned and run by the Fergiani family, was vandalised by three young boys who “barrelled” into the shop and threw over a dozen eggs all over the bookshops stock causing hundreds of pounds in damage.

General manager Jess Allan said: “It caused a lot of chaos, as anything the eggs touched just had to be scrubbed or thrown out, it was almost worse than paint and the smell of it was awful.

“They barrelled in and started throwing eggs everywhere, they didn’t actually hit a person fortunately and the only person they aimed at was the bookseller behind the counter who nimbly ducked.

“They also targeted the Sainsbury’s Local – but there was a moment where we were thinking why do you hate us? What have we done that you would want to do that, but targeting more than one shop just reinforces it was meaningless nonsense.”

She added: “Maybe they thought they could just get away with it but it is a bit garbage because running a community bookshop comes with its difficulties.

“There are always going to be high periods and low periods and you have to just make it work.

“We are a smaller shop and that kind of damage might seem like something careless or funny but we had to close for three or four hours, scrub and categorise the damaged books. It’s a huge amount of work.”

The bookshop which also has sister branches in Queen’s Park and Columbia Road Market said while £800 of stock was damaged, publishers and the community rallied together to get the bookshop back open and check in on their staff.

“We have had a lot of support from the publishers saying if their books are damaged they will replace them and some have just sent books to replace shelf space,” said Ms Allan, who has been working at the shop since the Covid pandemic.

She added: “We’re very fortunate the publishers have been so generous and that a lot of the damages have been recouped but it’s also just really demoralising – a lot of our staff are quite young and work really hard to try to make it nice for our customers.

“It was a horrible blip but we’re really grateful to everyone that has been so kind to us and we’re really thankful for that.”

West End Lane books is well known for authors dropping into sign copies of their work, including Milly Goldsmith with Things I Told My Notes App

Ms Allan said one of the sole focuses of the bookshop was to get young people interested in reading.

“We sell to the community but the basic belief of the family that have opened the shops is about the transformative nature of reading for young people wherever you are,” she said, “It is a core part of what we are – so to have these children come in – and do this was shocking.

“Our staff banded together and it is really nice the community has made a point to reach out and speak to them as it can be really humiliating.”

A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “We recognise the impact that anti-social behaviour can have on local businesses and the community and an investigation is under way into this incident.

“On Tuesday, June 23 at 10:56, police were called to reports of criminal damage at a bookshop in West End Lane, West Hampstead.

“Officers attended and took a report that three men had entered the premises and thrown a number of eggs.

“An investigation is ongoing and officers continue to pursue several lines of enquiry, including CCTV analysis.

“Anyone with information that may assist police is asked to call 101 quoting CAD 5217/23Jun.”