Portobello Book Blog

Today was an exciting day for Portobello as a new shop opened in our High Street – a bookshop no less! I was lucky enough to be invited to visit the shop and meet owner Jack and shop manager Alice a few weeks ago while it was a work in progress. Today was the big day when the doors were finally open and we could all see what a fabulous new addition we have on our High Street.

It’s a lovely spacious shop with books in hardback and paperback in all different kinds of genres. The shop aims to stock around 8000 titles but after a busy opening day, I think that number will have gone down substantially! There is also a lovely stationary and gift section.

There is a lovely children’s section with lots of comfy spaces, including a wigwam, for the younger customers to sit and look through a book. There is a fabulous mural on the wall of the children’s space, created by illustrator Eilidh Muldoon.

You are sure to find a book you will like on the shelves but if there is something particular you are looking for which isn’t in the shop, the helpful staff will order it in for next day delivery. You can either do that in person or by filling in the form on their website.

My first purchase was The Librarian by Salley Vickers. My daughters also treated themselves to some books. I met so many people I knew in the shop and that’s something I think is going to be great about this bookshop. There’s a real community feel to it. My photos don’t show that it was busy but I didn’t want to post photos without permission. So it’s mostly about the books!

I’m looking forward to the opening event on Friday which will feature Daniel Gray, Kokumo Rocks Doug Johnstone and Charlotte Runcie. It’s a ticketed event and fully booked I’m afraid but I’ll take some photos while I’m there. Lots of events are planned for the shop so keep an eye out for those.

It’s so good to see an independent bookshop opening. I hope it does really well and I will no doubt be crossing the doorstep regularly! You can sign up to the mailing list to find out about news and future events by visiting the website: The Portobello Bookshop The shop will be open from 10am-6pm, seven days a week