‘Havens of escapism’: Enjoy a literary journey on the Bookshop Crawl
For Bex and Rhys Hughes, nothing beats the joy of finding a good book – so they set up a pub crawl-style event for readers, writes David Barnett. Alcohol not included
Neil Gaiman, in his novel American Gods, wrote: “What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul.”
For Rhys Hughes, that quote underpins the entire ethos of an event, now in its eighth year, across London this weekend: the Bookshop Crawl.
What is a Bookshop Crawl? Well, think of a pub crawl... but with bookshops (and no alcohol).
“Neil Gaiman wrote this in fiction, but in truth I hear it as fact,” says Rhys. “A town with a bookshop filled to the brim offers a world of potential adventures and is a truly wonderful place.”
Rhys is the co-founder of Bookshop Crawl with his wife Bex, from whom the impetus for the fast-growing event originally came.
Eight years ago Bex was an active book blogger, running a successful online book swap (Ninja Book Swap) and spending many hours reading and reviewing books.
Bex wanted to somehow translate the successful online experience that was bringing book lovers together on the internet into a real-life happening.
Wouldn’t it be great, she thought, to bring people together to explore and visit all those bookshops in London she’d never managed to see while living there?
As a retail worker, Bex realised that February is a quiet month for shops, and that bringing footfall through the doors could actually help them. So she put out a message on Twitter, basically asking, “Hey, does anybody fancy going shopping with me?”
About that initial idea, Bex says: “The response to the initial tweet and idea of a day bookshop crawling in London was overwhelming and positive. From the small following I had on my personal account at the time, I gathered 30 book lovers for the first single-day event. We visited five bookshops over the course of a day, and those who had any energy left at the end went for pizza together. Some of those involved in the first bookshop crawl created lasting friendships, and some still volunteer for our events.”
Rhys adds: “During the first bookshop crawl we had a brilliant time, accidentally walked seven miles, laughed a lot, occasionally got lost, and bought a lot of books!
“We knew we wanted to make it an annual event as soon as it was over, but it wasn’t until a couple of weeks before the second event in 2017 that we realised the potential that London Bookshop Crawl had to become the event it is today.
“The second year, somewhat mysteriously, word spread and we found ourselves with over 120 people wanting to come along to our groups. This led to a big rethink of how the event worked, and the beginning of the London Bookshop Crawl as a weekend in 2018.”
This year, the Bookshop Crawl is a big, slick, organised event, running from 17 to 19 February. More than 70 bookshops across central and greater London are joining in this year, so to help people explore, Bex and Rhys have created 10 downloadable itineraries which people can use on their own or with friends. Participants can also claim freebies and discounts from many bookshops with their bookshop crawl ID cards along the way, and connect with other bookshop crawlers online by using the hashtag #LondonBookshopCrawl on social media.
“All of our Bookshop Crawls are ‘socially antisocial’ events, run by a socially anxious person and designed to accommodate everyone – however confident or introverted – who loves books”, Rhys says.
Perhaps against the current economic trends at the moment, physical bookshops are having something of a period of growth, slightly reversing a curve of decline that has lasted 20 years.
The Booksellers Association (which represents independent, chain and non-traditional booksellers across the UK and Ireland) released new figures in January as part of its annual membership survey, which revealed that the number of independent bookshops in BA membership at the end of 2022 grew to 1072 shops. That’s up from 1027 in 2021, and the lowest point of 867 in 2016. This marks the highest number of independent bookshops in BA membership in 10 years.
Meryl Halls, managing director at the Booksellers Association, says: “We are clearly delighted at the continued increase in the number of indie bookshops on our high streets ... This news confirms that bookshops are crucially important – and valued – parts of our high street communities.
“Bookshops bring social and cultural capital to every town, village, suburb or city centre they are part of, and punch way above their weight in terms of impact and engagement locally, and nationally. We want the number of bookshops to keep rising.
“The number of bookshops has grown gradually and slowly since 2016; during the pandemic we saw a frankly astonishing number of new entrants to bookselling. Drawn by the cultural relevance of books, reading and bookshops, inspired by the activism on display amongst current booksellers, seeing bookselling as a valid and rewarding career choice – these are all reasons why people open bookshops, and we want each and every one of the shops to succeed,” Halls says.
“However, with the economic headwinds coming our way – recession, inflation, labour shortages and massive cost increases across the board – bookshops need support. Margins are extremely tight, and for bookshops to thrive on high streets they need governments to take action to protect small businesses from the cost-of-living crisis, as well as unequal tax burdens such as business rates,” she added.
Does it matter, though, where we buy our books? Bex thinks it does.
“Bookshops are essential because they provide a place for ideas to exist all together. Books give people the chance to engage with things, think them out and work out their thoughts. Fiction creates empathy and understanding, non-fiction does the same, and books create conversation which is absolutely essential,” she says.
“Bookshops are also havens of escapism, and are an almost magical thing in which exists the capacity to help us both engage with and disengage from the world as needed. The variety of bookshops with different aims and focuses means that you’ll find different, amazing books in every single bookshop you visit.
“Although it’s never black and white, in general I always try to shop with my local indie bookshop, as it’s supporting local people and local communities with my money, and more of it makes it down the supply chain too ensuring everyone is more able to keep doing what they’re doing! I do sell preloved books online myself through Ninja Book Box, but when recommending new books to people I always suggest their local bookshop, buying directly from the publisher, or supporting bookshops through Bookshop.org.”
The Bookshop Crawl is an all-ages event, so people often bring their children along too.
“The joy on their faces when they enter a new bookshop for the first time and find a book they have been looking for. Or even better, a book they didn’t know about, that they have stumbled across or been recommended by a staff member or other crawler... it is possible to do that online, but it’s just not the same,” Rhys says.
“In truth, it shouldn’t matter where a reader gets their books from – be that in person, online or via audio. But, despite this, there is something so magical about the experience of a bookshop that would truly be missed if there were fewer of them.”
The Bookshop Crawl has also expanded out of London, with events this year planned for Bath, Oxford, York and Canterbury.
Rhys says: “Since the first year we ran London Bookshop Crawl we’ve always done roaming events in the summer, expanding the number of these in 2022 and 2023.
“The bookshop crawl is always a work in progress, taking on new ideas and reworking old ones. The Bookish Quiz is a great example of this, having gone from a not-fully-realised idea in 2018 to a successful virtual event during Covid, and now back to a physical event this year in a brand new venue: Battersea Bookshop in Battersea Power Station.”
Plans for next year’s London Bookshop Crawl will start shortly after this year’s event finishes; and the upturn in the number of bookshops, highlighted by the Booksellers Association report, is most welcome for the team.
“After eight years of Crawling around bookshops in London, it is still sad when you get to the point of contacting bookshops to see if they would like to be involved, only to realise that they have closed,” says Rhys. “So many awesome indies have gone over the years (Camden Lock Books, Brooks, Al Saqi Books for instance in recent years), but it is equally exciting to see new ones constantly opening up. We’re happy to have several brand new bookshops taking part in 2023’s event.”
For details of upcoming Bookshop Crawl events, click here
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments