Collectors Treasury bills itself as Africa's largest secondhand bookshop, and it is hard to argue with the claim. Crammed into a building near the CBD, it contains over a million items: books on every subject, vinyl records, old magazines, out-of-print maps, vintage prints, posters, and ephemera that defies easy classification. The organisation is idiosyncratic; finding something specific requires patience, but wandering and seeing what turns up is the point.
For anyone with an interest in South Africa — its history, its literature, its maps, its popular culture — this is a genuinely rewarding place. Out-of-print books on apartheid-era politics, old travel guides to places that no longer exist, Afrikaans pulp novels, 1970s wildlife photography: all of it is here somewhere. The neighbourhood around it is the rough CBD, so arrive by Uber. Give yourself at least an hour.