Dillons was a British bookseller founded in 1936, named after its founder and owner Una Dillon. Originally based in Bloomsbury in London, the company expanded under subsequent owners Pentos in the 1980s into a bookselling chain across the United Kingdom. In 1995 Pentos went into receivership and sold Dillons to Thorn EMI, which immediately closed 40 of the 140 Dillons bookstore locations. Of the remaining 100 stores, most kept the name Dillons, while the remainder were Hatchards and Hodges Figgis. Within Thorn EMI, Dillons was placed in the HMV Group, which had been a division of Thorn EMI since 1986. EMI demerged from Thorn in August 1996, and Dillons-HMV remained an EMI holding. Dillons was subsumed under rival chain Waterstones' branding in 1999, at which point the brand ceased to exist. History Store Street Dillon's Bookshop was founded by Una Dillon in 1936 at 9 Store Street, between Gower Street and Tottenham Court Road in Bloomsbury. Dillon had become involved in the book trade through running bookstalls for the Central Association for Mental Welfare after graduating from Bedford College, London. Determined to build a career in bookselling she persuaded the owner of a failing bookshop to sell her the business for £800, borrowing £600 off her father and £200 from a friend. Dillon stocked both academic and general titles, believing that specialisation stifled curiosity, and the shop prospered catering to the needs of staff and students of the nearby University of London. Dillon would deliver books herself by bicycle within eight hours and the shop began to attract bibliophiles, with regular customers including Cecil Day-Lewis and John Betjeman, who would also become Dillon's personal friends. The outbreak of World War II saw the nearby University of London and Froebel College evacuated from London, but instead of closing for the war Dillon maintained contact with her customers and shipped orders to their new locations in Cardiff, Leicester and Hertfordshire, while also building a new customer base with the staff of the Ministry of Information who were now established in Senate House. When her shop suffered bomb damage she temporarily operated from an empty shop opposite. Dillon's University Bookshop After the war Dillon increasingly focused on educational titles and her shop became an important supplier of books to students from the Commonwealth of Nations. Further expansion was impossible without outside support, however, and Dillon was one of several booksellers approached by the