What did Ben Aaronovitch and Peter Grant blue plaque do at Waterstones?

The Story

# The Garrick Street Waterstones Plaque Standing on Garrick Street in London's West End, you're at the very threshold where fiction became legend. It was here, in this Waterstones bookstore, that Ben Aaronovitch first conceived PC Peter Grant—the reluctant wizard-policeman who would go on to enchant readers across the Rivers of London series and beyond. While Aaronovitch didn't live at this address, this was the creative crucible where Grant emerged from imagination into the literary world, born from the author's desire to explore London's hidden supernatural underbelly through the eyes of a young Metropolitan Police constable. The bookstore itself became a beacon for readers seeking to trace the geographical backbone of Aaronovitch's work, making this Covent Garden location a pilgrimage site for those who wanted to walk in Grant's footsteps through the actual streets that inspired his adventures. In choosing to commemorate this particular shop, the blue plaque acknowledges something profound: that sometimes the most magical moments happen not in grand palaces or grand estates, but in the quiet corners of everyday places where a writer's imagination transforms a bookstore into a gateway to the supernatural heart of London.