The physical structure of the Marks & Co. shop is the work’s central symbol. Where the staff letters reference their place of work only in general terms, it is implied to be the object of immense fascination on Helene Hanff’s part. Numerous letters respond to apparent queries about it, including one from Maxine that begins, “It is the loveliest old shop straight out of Dickens, you would go absolutely out of your mind over it” (26). What follows is a lengthy description of the shop that stresses its age and quaintness, catering to an image of England constructed from literary works and other cultural artifacts; Maxine even remarks that an employee has a “Hogarth nose,” a reference to the prints of 18th-century satirist William Hogarth. In this sense, the shop symbolizes England—or, at least, the England of Hanff’s imagination.

As the collection progresses, the shop becomes more deeply intertwined with the relationships that grow around it. Thus, Hanff’s final letter asks a friend traveling to England to “kiss it for [her]” because she “owe[s] it so much” (94). By this point, Hanff concedes that the “England of English literature” that she was searching for may not exist as a physical location but notes that it exists in the room around her (94), in the books and letters she has received over the years.