Exhibition Stand Builder for London Book Fair 2027
London Book Fair runs 16–18 March 2027 at ExCeL London, its first edition at the venue after its years at Olympia, and the organiser, RX, describes it as the first international publishing event of the year, with 34,000+ publishing professionals and 1,000+ exhibiting professionals. We build exhibition stands at ExCeL in custom wooden construction or on our DUM FLEX™ frame, with the drawings, the venue submissions and our own crew on site. Our ExCeL work runs from a 300 m² Bespoke stand for Turkish Airlines to a 75 m² multi-exhibitor pavilion for the Service Exporters' Association, the format that sits closest to a publishing fair's collective stands.
Get a quote →From Olympia to ExCeL: what changes for an exhibitor in 2027
The organiser announced on 28 January 2026 that London Book Fair would move to ExCeL London from 2027 under a multi-year agreement. The March 2026 fair was the last at Olympia; 16–18 March 2027 is the first at ExCeL, and nobody has exhibited at this fair in this building before.
A different building, with a different floor
The organiser's own page on the move sets out what it has taken from ExCeL: exclusive use of the new ICC Expansion, step-free access throughout, more seating, more meeting rooms and the venue's 5G and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity. For an exhibitor the practical change is the floor itself: the fair has taken the venue's newest space, the ICC Expansion, opened in autumn 2025, and the build rules that apply to it are ExCeL's own, the same ones we build to on every show in the building. A stand that was designed around Olympia's constraints does not need to be, here.
Getting there, and getting the stand there
ExCeL sits on the Elizabeth line at Custom House, a 5-minute walk along the boulevard to the fair's halls, with its own DLR station at Prince Regent for the ICC side, and London City Airport under a kilometre away. That matters for an international publishing audience, and it matters for your own team flying in for rights meetings. For the build, vehicles into ExCeL are booked through the venue's own traffic system, and every contractor on site works to the venue's construction rules; our ExCeL London page covers loading, rigging and the hall rules in full, so this page does not.
Booking the plot, and the price freeze
Floor space is booked with the organiser, which has published a price freeze for existing exhibitors for a limited period on the 2027 edition. That booking covers the plot. Design, construction and the install are a separate scope, and the earlier that scope is settled, the more of the first-edition unknowns, such as hall allocation and the 2027 exhibitor manual, can be absorbed into the design rather than discovered on site.
What a book fair stand has to do that other stands don't
A publishing stand carries weight, both kinds: shelves of physical stock, and a programme of back-to-back rights meetings that need somewhere to happen.
Book walls, shelf loads and the light on the cover
Full-height book walls are the fair's visual language, and a run of loaded shelving is heavier than a standard exhibition wall is built to carry. We engineer the shelving as structure, in custom wooden construction with the shelf spans and fixings sized for the stock you will actually put on them, and we light covers from the front and above rather than from a single track that leaves the lower shelves in shadow. Lockable stock storage goes into the back of the wall, so the floor stays clear for people.
Rights corners and the collective stand
Agents and rights teams run their fair as a diary of half-hour meetings, so a publisher's stand needs semi-private tables that are visibly booked rather than open sofas, with acoustic separation from the aisle. Country and regional collective stands, a tradition at this fair, add a second layer: a shared identity across a pavilion with individual publishers' stock and meeting tables inside it. That is the format we built for the Service Exporters' Association at ExCeL, a 75 m² Bespoke pavilion carrying ten exhibitors under one brand, and the planning logic carries straight across to a publishing collective.
The venue experience we bring to a first-edition fair
London Book Fair is new to ExCeL. We are not: the venue's rigging, loading and structural rules are the same on every show in the building, and we have built to them repeatedly.
From 45 m² on the DUM FLEX frame to 300 m² in custom wood
At ExCeL we have built a 300 m² Bespoke stand for Turkish Airlines, a 55 m² double-decker for Turkish Technic with a private meeting level above an open floor, and two DUM FLEX™ builds, 54 m² for Questel and 45 m² for EKA Elevator, alongside the Service Exporters' Association pavilion and repeat stands for the same hotel group across two editions. A publisher's plot at the fair will usually sit at the smaller end of that range, and the double-decker is the closest reference for fitting meetings above stock.
What transfers from those builds to yours
The venue's rules are the constant: a complex-structure file, with scaled drawings, calculations and risk assessments, has to reach the venue through the organiser at least 28 days before tenancy for anything over 4 m, multi-storey or rigged; primary rigging points are placed only by ExCeL's own rigging team; floors are fixed to with approved tape, never screws. Those are venue rules, not London Book Fair rules, and they apply to a book wall as much as to an airline stand. The 2027 exhibitor manual sets the fair's own detail on top once you are booked, and we design to it.
Three days of trading, planned from the shelf outward
The fair opens 09:00 to 18:30 on the Tuesday and Wednesday and 09:00 to 17:00 on the Thursday, and a publishing stand has to be fully stocked and fully booked from the first hour.
We plan a London Book Fair build in reverse from the stock delivery: the shelving is up, lit and signed before the boxes arrive, the storage is lockable before the first evening, and the meeting tables are numbered to match your rights diary. Our crew installs, stays on call through the three days and strikes the stand after close on the Thursday. Design, your technical drawings and the organiser submissions originate in London, the same as every project we take on, and one project manager runs the plot from first drawing to the last pallet off the floor.
Talk to us about London Book Fair →Exhibiting at London Book Fair: the questions we get asked
When and where is London Book Fair 2027?
16–18 March 2027 at ExCeL London, One Western Gateway, Royal Victoria Dock, E16 1XL. Dates and venue are published by the organiser on londonbookfair.co.uk.
Is London Book Fair still at Olympia?
No. The March 2026 fair was the last at Olympia London. From 2027 the fair runs at ExCeL London under a multi-year agreement announced by the organiser on 28 January 2026.
Have you built a stand at London Book Fair before?
We have built repeatedly at ExCeL London, where the 2027 fair takes place: a 300 m² Bespoke stand for Turkish Airlines, a 55 m² double-decker for Turkish Technic, DUM FLEX™ builds for Questel and EKA Elevator, and a 75 m² multi-exhibitor pavilion for the Service Exporters' Association. The venue's rules carry across every show in the building.
Can you build a shared or country collective stand for a group of publishers?
Yes. A multi-exhibitor pavilion with one shared identity and individual stock and meeting space inside it is a format we have built at ExCeL, and it is the natural shape for a publishing collective. Send us the number of publishers and the plot size and we will draw a layout.
Can the shelving take a full load of books?
Yes, if it is engineered for it. We size shelf spans, thicknesses and fixings for the stock you tell us you will bring, and build lockable storage behind the wall for the overflow. Tell us the number of titles per metre and we design from there.
Where do rights meetings happen on the stand?
On semi-private tables built into the stand, usually two to four depending on the plot, with partial screening from the aisle and numbering that matches your meeting diary. A double-decker puts the meeting level above the stock when the plot is small and the diary is long.
Do you handle the venue paperwork for a first edition at ExCeL?
Yes. Risk assessments, method statements, structural submissions for anything complex and the organiser's forms are part of our scope, prepared to the 2027 exhibitor manual once you are booked. You review and approve; the submissions are ours to chase.