In my first post on The Rise of Secondhand Bookshops in Britain, in 2017, I suggested that the story of a decline in the number wasn't (then) supported by the facts. I also discussed the reasons why the story persists.
In July last year I reported on the welcome return in June of The Book Guide, which lists second-hand bookshops in Britain (and Ireland), together with reviews by customers.
This invaluable resource had earlier made it possible to see that, contrary to popular belief, the number of second-hand bookshops in the UK had increased by about 25% over a thirty year period, not declined. The Guide had listed around 1,187 bookshops in the UK in 2017, compared to 942 in Driff’s exhaustive guide of 1984: and their scope was broadly similar.
We can now review the position after 12 months of the relaunched guide. Sadly, about 117 bookshops have closed over the year. By contrast, I count about 47 newly opened or newly discovered shops that have been notified. The net change is therefore minus 70. That is for the first time a significant fall, as distinct from minor changes in the ups and downs of the total.
The guide depends entirely on volunteer information as readers get out and about visiting, and reporting on, what they find. It could be that there are more closures yet to be reported, though there may also be newly opened shops too.
Even so, it is worth reminding ourselves that in historical terms the total is still among the highest. There are still 1,021 or so secondhand bookshops in the UK, compared to Driff’s 942 of 38 years ago.
Note: The latest post on this subject is The Rise and Fall of Second-Hand Bookshops in Britain.
(Mark Valentine)
How many of the shops are charity shops, and how large are they, though? There are very few like the enormous Waterfield's or Francis Edwards of the past, and the first-edition sellers and specialists are on the 'net now.
ReplyDeleteIn the original 2017 total, 287 of the 1217 were charity bookshops (see my post of 13 Sept 2017). The customer comments in the Book Guide describe a mixture of types and sizes of bookshop. Mark V
DeleteMark,
ReplyDeleteRegarding your final sentence, do you think that in modern times we have an impression that the general public read more books "back in the day," when that is really not the case?
-Jeff Matthews
There might also have been a shift in buying habits, with people keen to save money by buying books secondhand rather than new.
ReplyDeleteIt's also possible that people shifted to buying secondhand books as library collections declined in quality.
Wouldn't a more relevant measure be: # of bookshops per capita?
ReplyDeleteHasn't the UK population grown significantly in those 38 years?
My neighbour in Twickenham, Tony Hall, is in the process of closing up his shop - as he puts it, it's his office and he has the luxury of having a small bookshop attached. I wonder how many other bookshops or book dealers there are in Britain, let alone London, that still own their entire building outright? (p.s. If anyone fancies owning a bookshop outright, please drop him a line, I've grown up with his bookshop and would be delighted to see one in its place!)
ReplyDeleteCertainly, that would be an interesting measure. But I was investigating the persistent belief that the absolute number of second-hand bookshops has declined.
ReplyDelete