On this bookshop information, John Tomaney takes us on a tour of a number of the finest bookshops within the UK metropolis of Newcastle upon Tyne and the broader North East. If there’s a bookshop that you just assume others ought to go to in a selected metropolis, additional details about contributing follows this text.

Picture Credit score: Photograph by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Newcastle upon Tyne is England’s handsomest metropolis. Organized round a gorge, crossed by historic bridges and centred on John Dobson’s nineteenth-century classically designed new city, there may be a lot to admire. However how does it serve the bibliophile? Central Newcastle lacks an impartial common bookshop of benefit, however the metropolis is served by public transport that makes e book looking a extremely pleasant risk.

One choice is to take the Metro – Newcastle’s speedy transit system – eastwards alongside the north financial institution of the River Tyne, out towards the North Coastline. Alight on the historic port of North Shields for the estimable Keel Row Books. The educated homeowners concentrate on signed, uncommon and antiquarian books, high-quality bindings, literature and trendy first editions, kids’s books and works on the historical past and topography of Northumberland, Durham and Newcastle, however the bookshop affords much more.

A visit to North Shields can simply be mixed with a go to to the close by seaside city of Whitley Bay – both a few stops additional on the Metro or a lovely stroll by way of elements of the River Tyne Path and the England Coast Path, taking within the Fish Quay, Tynemouth Priory and Citadel and different sights. At Whitley Bay you will discover the bound, a lately opened impartial bookshop.

Or take the prepare westwards, from Newcastle Central Station, for a 30-minute journey alongside the Tyne Valley to the previous Roman settlement and Northumberland market city of Corbridge. Right here, amongst a clutch of artwork galleries, pubs and cafes, you will discover Forum Books, positioned in an previous chapel within the market, mom bookshop of the sure in Whitley Bay. A visit to Corbridge will be mixed with a go to to Hexham, served by prepare but additionally accessible by a two-hour stroll from Corbridge by way of the River Tyne Path. Right here, the impartial Cogito Books is the principle attraction, tucked down a lane close to the twelfth-century Abbey. Altogether, an agreeable day journey.

A visit northward to Alnwick is one other risk. Getting there by public transport is extra of a problem. There are buses from central Newcastle nevertheless it’s a 90-minute journey. A faster various is the prepare to close by Alnmouth earlier than catching a connecting bus. Or, from Alnmouth station get pleasure from a two-hour stroll alongside the banks of the River Aln to Alnwick. The prize is a go to to one of many largest secondhand bookshops on this planet, the legendary Barter Books. Housed in a Victorian former railway station, you might spend all day right here perusing its huge providing, particularly because it comprises a handy café. Within the city centre, within the shadow of Alnwick Citadel, is the newly minted Accidental Bookshop, one other offspring of Discussion board Books.

Again in Newcastle, book-browsing choices are restricted. Books for Amnesty on Westgate Street, not removed from the Central Station, affords a risk. In St Andrew’s Avenue, The Back Page is a specialist sports activities bookshop, whereas The New Bridge Project bookshop, a part of an artist’s colony in Shieldfield exterior the town centre, shares artwork and tradition titles. Discussion board Books additionally has a presence on the close by Biscuit Factory, which showcases the work of native artists and has a café with a view of the well-known Byker Wall.

Ardent bibliophiles should make two pilgrimages. Seven Stories, the Nationwide Centre for Kids’s Books, is a museum and customer centre devoted to kids’s literature and based mostly within the Ouseburn Valley, a gentrifying former industrial space simply past the town centre. This can be a place to entertain any bairns you might need with you. Lastly, Newcastle is house to the magnificent Lit&Phil, considered one of England’s oldest impartial libraries, based in 1793 and occupying its current website since 1825 which, conveniently, is a brief stroll from the Central Station. It was the seat of the Northumbrian enlightenment within the nineteenth century when Tyneside was a byword for business and enterprise. It’s open to all and free to discover and browse.

Notice: This bookshop information offers the views of the writer, and never the place of the LSE Evaluate of Books weblog, or of the London Faculty of Economics and Political Science. Thanks to Keel Row Books and the Lit&Phil for offering pictures of their respective venues. Pictures of the Lit&Phil are by Sally Ann Norman. 

Banner Picture Credit score: Cropped picture of Lit&Phil bookshelves taken by Sally Ann Norman.

Picture Two Credit score: ‘Barter Books in Alnwick, Northumberland’ by Alan Stanton licensed underneath CC BY SA 2.0.

Do you’ve got a favorite bookshop? If there’s a bookshop that you just assume different college students and lecturers ought to go to, then that is your probability to inform us all about it.

As a part of a regular feature on LSE Evaluate of Books, we’re asking lecturers and college students to advocate their favorite two or three bookshops in a selected metropolis, with the purpose of constructing an thrilling on-line sequence for our book-loving neighborhood of readers the world over.

Bookshops may very well be tutorial, various, multilingual, hobby-based, secret or underground establishments, secondhand retailers or related to a college. We’d wish to cowl all world areas too and are significantly eager to characteristic cities exterior of Europe and North America.

If one thing involves thoughts, we’re on the lookout for round 150 phrases per bookshop, detailing why every place is a must-see. Our editorial workforce can then discover appropriate photographs and hyperlinks to accompany the piece, although you’re welcome to produce these too. We solely ask that you just concentrate on only one metropolis or area, and two or three bookshops inside it.

Electronic mail us when you’d wish to contribute: lsereviewofbooks@lse.ac.uk