Spotlight on… BOOKBAR
A bookshop, cafe, wine bar and social space in one, Chrissy Ryan has brought together all of her (and our) favourite things with Bookbar
When Ryan was a teen, she kept diaries. If you sifted through them now, between complaints of the stresses of school exams, you’d find mention after mention of her dream of opening a bookshop. Yet: ‘I never thought I’d actually do it,’ she laughs, sitting across from me over coffee at, err, her bookstore, Bookbar, in north London.
She may not have believed it to be possible, but her path has taken her where she needed to be. Ryan’s first job was at a bookshop in Primrose Hill. From there, she worked her way up to head of international sales for a publisher. This was followed by a six-month stint looking after a bookshop in the Maldives – ‘I’d go scuba diving in my lunch break,’ she grins – where the idea for setting up her own shop resurfaced.
When Ryan returned to London at the start of the pandemic last year, she had two options: go back to her old life by looking for publishing jobs, or take a leap of faith and use savings to set up that bookshop she’d dreamed of. She took the leap of faith.
‘People say there’s nothing better than curling up with a good book, but I disagree,’ she says. ‘There’s nothing better than sharing a good book with someone else. I wanted Bookbar to be a fun, social space that focuses on conversations generated around books, rather than the solitary act of reading them.’
With limits on social interaction, it proved difficult at first. So, in June last year, Ryan began Bookbar online. She sold books via the site, launched an online book club, and used social media to leverage her community and branding. In the autumn, she finally got the shop in Islington, which would have opened in January, if it weren’t for the lockdown.
‘I came every day, put the shutters up, talked to people and sold books from the door,’ she says. ‘The slow burn towards opening in April helped drum up excitement. By the time I did open, I had loyal customers.’
Bookbar has gone from strength to strength, and there is now a team of four. The book club has featured interviews with huge authors, while the bar and cafe have become drinking destinations in their own rights.
Meanwhile, Ryan has launched her shelf medicate service – a literary prescription for how you’re feeling – carried out over the phone, via the website or over a glass of wine or coffee in shop. Ryan feels it’s important to get under the skin of what makes readers tick. ‘I don’t want to just do cookie-cutter recommendations,’ she says. ‘Books are about emotions, so I’m always asking, “What do you want to feel?” The best booksellers are emotionally intelligent.’
A top-class bookseller, Ryan certainly is. And with more coming up in the pipeline (think: wine-tasting evenings, where grapes are paired to particular books, as well as read-dating – speed-dating with books), I think her teenage self would be proud.