- Location: Alnwick Station, Alnwick, Northumberland, NE66 1TN
- Opening times: Monday to Sunday 9am – 7pm
- Entry: Free entry
- Access: Onsite car parking
It was never my intention to include retail outlets in this website, but I am making an exception for Barter Books in Alnwick, one of the largest second-hand bookshops in Britain and arguably a tourist attraction in its own right.
The store was launched in 1991 by Stuart and Mary Manley, the husband-and-wife team who still own it today, and is housed in the old Alnwick Railway Station and train shed rendered redundant courtesy of the Beeching rationalisation of British railways in the 1960s. The rail tracks may have been filled in long ago, but the architecture and layout still evoke the building’s former role; witness the old waiting room, or the lovely glass and metal awning running along the exterior. In a nice touch, Tonka Toy-style trains run on railway tracks above the bookcases in the store’s most prominent room.
This same room also features a wonderful mural depicting over 30 life-size portraits of famous writers by local artist Peter Dodd. Upon seeing it for the first time the obvious game is to see how many of the authors you can name, but after that it is worth spending some time picking out the details. Here is Charlotte Bronte without her sisters, but accompanied by their dogs Keeper and Flossie. Here are two poets from different generations, Wilfrid Owen and John Keats, deep in conversation; Owen had a copy of Keats’ poetry in his pocket when he died in the First World War. And here is Alan Bennett, unable to get a word in edgeways as Ratty, Toad, Mole and Badger all rabbit on; Bennett adapted the Kenneth Graham classic for the stage in the 1990s.
And then there are the books. Over 350,000 of them, apparently. As well as the expected categories (fiction, classics, biography, history, and so on), there are also sections devoted to first editions, rare books, Folio Society and private press editions, and old British comic annuals. Not surprisingly considering their cost and scarcity, these books are in glass display cases and make for interesting window shopping. The contents of the rest of the shop are open to full-on browsing.
Something I missed when last in the store but which I’ve just noticed on the online floorplan is the section devoted to westerns. How brilliant is that? This was commonplace in bookshops when I was a boy, but you never see it now. Speaking of what was once the norm, whenever I am in a second-hand bookstore I always conduct the Moorcock-Shute-Wheatley test (or the MSW, as nobody ever calls it), wherein I go looking for books by these once-ubiquitous but now invisible authors. Michael Moorcock, the most prolific of the three by dint of having not yet died, scores a zero. This is quite astonishing considering he has written what seems like nigh on two thousand novels, so shame on you, Barter Books. Nevil Shute is up next, and six nice red leatherbound Heron editions of his work can be found over in section C10. Alas, none of them are On The Beach, a novel I have been threatening to read for some years, but what’s this next to them? A rather plain looking hardback called A Nevil Shute Omnibus is what it is, containing not only On The Beach but also A Town Like Alice and No Highway, in other words, the only three NV novels I’ve ever heard of. Well done, Barter Books, nice recovery and – kerching! – you get a sale. Finally, I go in search of Dennis Wheatley, who, it transpires, is well represented not only with over a dozen Heron editions, but also a surprising number of signed copies for a guy that died in 1977. None of them were The Devil Rides Out, thankfully, or I would have been adding that to the 200+ pile of books still waiting to be read back home. Still, that’s a score of two out of three in the MSW Test, and you know what Meat Loaf said about that!
One of the many things I like about Barter Books is that it always seems busy (by ‘always’, I mean both times I have been here). During my very occasional visits to shopping malls I almost inevitably go looking for the will to live in the nearest Waterstones, where it is so hushed it feels like an old church or, more appropriately, a 1960s library. This is not because of some reverential silence but because, rather depressingly, it is empty. That is not the case at Barter Books, where it is noisily but pleasingly buzzing. According to one website, this shop attracts as many people per year as it has books (that’s 350,000, remember), which makes it outranks even the mighty Durham Cathedral (296,406 in 2022) in terms of visitor numbers.
Barter Books was also responsible for the rebirth of the famous ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ propaganda poster of World War Two. Stuart Manley came across a rare original while going through a box of old books bought at auction, and Mary Manley framed it and hung it in the shop. It soon became a talking point, so the Manleys made it available as a reproduction poster and sales took off. The design is also available on mugs, postcards and fridge magnets; other Barter Books souvenirs include shop-branded mugs, t-shirts, and postcards of the mural. The bookstore also has the Station Buffet which offers home-cooked local produce, and the Paradise Ice Cream Parlour.
Destination or Diversion?
Bibliophiles will happily lose themselves for hours in what the New Statesman calls “the British Library of second-hand bookshops”, making Barter Books and honest-to-gosh destination.
