Page-turner New chapter for Prom as London’s oldest bookshop opens branch
THE Promenade is known for its string of high-end boutique clothing shops, but it now has a stylish bookseller drawing more trade to the leafy street.
Hatchard’s, London’s oldest bookshop, has only been there for a few weeks, but it already has some customers enthralled.
Occupying the site of the former Mayther stationery shop, Hatchard’s has expanded the space inside and furnished it with wall-to-ceiling white bookcases, each with their own ladder.
The downstairs is for the latest curated fiction, with some familiar names and some unfamiliar, while the upstairs is for non-fiction – with a cubbyhole for every speciality.
The boutique feeling to the shop has not gone unnoticed by customers, some of whom remarked on the softtouch Christmas decorations, saying: “They’re gorgeous, and aren’t the ladders cute?”
This is the 235-year-old bookseller’s first store outside London, where it remains the bookseller to the Royal Family.
In Cheltenham, it aims to create a space for specialist or curated book choices, with a selection of first editions, as well as a space for literary events throughout the year.
Grulia Pieracci, 26, was leafing through the fiction section with some friends and said: “It has an old feel to it. It’s inviting and calming. I love these Christmas decorations.”
Local medic Shahzaib Ahmed, 24, said: “I think it is very grand, with those ladders and just piles and piles of books. Altogether it looks very beautiful.”
Fellow 24-year-old Arin Ward agreed, but said he had been enchanted just by walking in.
He said: “You are just hit by this lovely fresh scent of new books and then you can just see how beautifully decorated it is.”