About

This website maps radical bookshops* focusing mainly on the period 1960 to the present day, across the entire of the United Kingdom.

*We define radical broadly, and include within it shops that specialised in, for instance, anarchist, socialist, Black or feminist books, as well as broader 'community' bookshops. This article by the Radical Bookselling History Project gives a good introduction to the history of radical bookselling.

This website was created by On the Record for the Alliance of Radical Booksellers (ARB), with funding from the Barry Amiel and Normal Melburn Trust. It developed from the work of the Radical Bookselling History Project, as well as On the Record's projects on the London bookshops Centerprise, Housmans and Newham Bookshop. A particularly valuable source of information has been the Radical Bookseller journal, which was published between 1979 - 1992, and which is currently being digitised by Senate House Library in London, who hold a full run. Many of the issues can also be found at Bishopsgate Institute.

In 2022 On the Record and the Alliance of Radical Booksellers organised a day of talks and events dedicated to radical bookselling past and present hosted by Barbican Library called Quiet Revolutions, which began the process of creating this map.

If you spot something we've got wrong or have some information to add please get in touch by emailing the Alliance of Radical Bookshops.

Credits:

Lead researcher: Tania Aubeelack

Researcher: Laura Toms

Editor: Rosa Schling

The Radical Bookselling History Project helped to create this website. The Radical Bookselling History Project is a small group of volunteers with experience of radical bookselling who aim to record and celebrate the history of radical bookselling in the UK 1970 – 2000, and encourage the archiving of its records. They produce an online newsletter and have a website. You can contact them via email here.

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