Kirkdale Bookshop

[Robin Orton]

Interesting interview with Geraldine Cox in today's 'Independent' magazine:

"My father and I opened the bookshop in 1966. Sydenham wasn't a place anybody expected a bookshop to open. A woman put her head around the door and said 'How wonderful, a bookshop! But you won't make it here.' Lewisham is the second largest borough in London but there was no bookshop then – they've come and gone over the years - and now we're the only one.

Everything was slower in those days, everyone had more time; bookselling was a much more gentlemanly thing. Customers were content to order a book and be told they had to wait two or three weeks, now they want it today. When we started there no such thing as an ISBN – today each has an individual standard book number, so you can flick through the list of numbers to work out which books you have in stock – but then data was published in two books four inches thick, which came out twice a year and by time we got them they were out of date. It was a different world; we relied on publishers' catalogues and representatives from the publishers; there were no computers, no faxes, no e-mails. In order to give a better service my father would drive around central London collecting books directly from the trade counters in central London. I remember phoning a publisher and saying 'I've got a lady here who really urgently needs a book,' and she said, 'one of our secretaries lives your way', so she brought it in on the train. These days the secretary probably wouldn't even know which books they publish.

Computers made the biggest difference. Everything speeded up. The demise of the Net Book Agreement – at which point everything started to be based around price, with big chains competing more and more for a market – was particularly problematic. Before that, we supplied library books to Bromley and Lewisham council. Overnight the three biggest library suppliers in the country joined forces and we couldn't compete with what they were offering. At that point I wondered if we could go on.

The shelves I put up in 1966 are still here, but things have changed. In order to survive, we have become a destination. We've always sold secondhand and antiquarian books so people know they might find something different. Now we also sell cards and a few gifts: literary mugs, candles, cuddly toys, ceramic buttons, anything we like, which enables us to offer some element of surprise.

People tell me it's a nice place to come, we have lots of events: author signings, theatrical evenings; recently we had a Dalek day, and an absinthe tasting when one of our local authors wrote a book on absinthe; we started up Sydenham art festival, now in its fourth year; and we sell tickets for local events. It is all connected with books but also involves the community; it's important that people feel at home and meet friends in the shop."

[jonekt]

Great article robin. I think kirkdale bookshop encapsulates all the good things about Sydenham. A shop thats really part of the community. I didn't realise they'd been going since 1966!

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[Eagle]

Yes I remember the coming of the bookshop . It has been one of the cultural highlights ever since.

Well done Sydenham Bookshop.