Book shop lines up spot on the Promenade

ONE of London’s oldest book shops is to come to the home of one of the county’s oldest literary festivals.

Hatchards is to open a branch in Cheltenham.

Packing a hefty literary punch all of its own, the bookseller opened in 1787 at its landmark address in Piccadilly, former customers have included Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde to Virginia Woolf and William Boyd.

Hatchards Booksellers opening in the spa town will be its first location outside London.

Doors will be opening to customers in early October – just in time for the Festival – and occupy the former Jack Wills premises in the Promenade. The location is perfect, within site of the yearly literary festival.

Francis Cleverdon, general manager of the original Hatchards store in Piccadilly London, is delighted to open the Cheltenham store: “We’re so proud to be coming to the heart of literary Gloucestershire for our third shop.

“We’ve been a centre of literary life for 225 years in London, and having the honour of holding the Royal Warrants since they were invented in the 1850s. “Cheltenham has its own marvellous literary traditions which we hope to reflect and expand with our books, our booksellers and our own literary heritage.”

Hatchards Cheltenham will have a strong focus on history, art, biography and coffee table books, boasting a generous events space for a thoughtfully curated all-year -round events programme, and will offer a complementary bookshop experience to the nearby well- established Waterstones.