Days of Hope

Days of Hope was a socialist bookshop in Newcastle upon Tyne connected to the Tyneside Socialist Centre (est c.1975). The centre's members included trade unionists, socialist feminist activists and some Trotskyists.

The Centre took out a lease on a shop in Cradlewell about a mile outside Newcastle city centre and established a bookshop called Cradlewell Books. It was subjected to a firebomb attack by fascists, but no one was hurt.

In 1978 another shop became available in Westgate Road in a more central location outside of Newcastle’s main shopping area. The new shop was renamed “Days of Hope” inspired by the Ken Loach TV series with the same name.

It generally sold radical and libertarian books and was locally referred as 'Haze of Dope', perhaps a bit unfairly as the staff were serious committed socialists.

Throughout its history the bookshop struggled to make enough money to keep going. A Bookshop Support group was formed which fundraised to help keep the bookshop going. Sympathetic academics at Newcastle University and Newcastle Polytechnic (now Northumbria University) encouraged students to buy their key texts from the bookshop.

From 1980, Days of Hope acted as a key resource for the peace movement on Tyneside by providing literature, badges and campaign materials. It also served as an information exchange and became a ticket office for buses and trains to rallies and meetings.

During the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the bookshop sold Irish Republican literature notably the Provisional Sinn Fein weekly paper, An Phoblacht. A death threat and occasional visits by the National Front were made as a result, but there were no violent attacks on the shop.

In 1983, Days of Hope became a regional cooperative after extensive debate. In 1984 books sales went up due to the Miners’ strike, but by early 1985 the bookshop started to decline.

Due to the bookshop's lease being terminated and financial difficulties the bookshop decided to officially cease trading on 28th June 1986.

Some key workers included Martin Spence and Andy McSmith, later a Labour Party Press Officer and a political correspondent at Daily Telegraph. Mo Mowlam was a volunteer in the shop.

Sources:

Martin Spence, 'Days of Hope', Radical Bookselling History Newsletter, Issue 2, April 2021 ISSN 2752-3977 [Online here, accessed 13.05.2025]

Radical Bookshops Listing, Radical Bookshop History Project (November 2023) [Available online here, accessed 13.05.2025]

The Radical Bookseller, No. 5 Mar/Apr 1981