The Other Branch

The Other Branch was a libertarian and community bookshop located in Leamington Spa during the 1970s and 1980s. The bookshop operated from Monday to Saturday, from 10:00 to 18:00, and was run primarily by volunteers with occasional paid staff.

The Other Branch sold a variety of books, magazines, and pamphlets focusing on topics such as sexual politics, mysticism, food and health, art and music, cultural studies, education, and technology. Popular magazines included Spare Rib and Gay News.

The bookshop hosted lively meetings and used a 'Day Book' for shop workers to share information, ensuring effective communication among the staff. These are now archived at the Warwickshire County Record Office.

By some accounts a rise in rents in the 1980s led to the shop's closure, although other sources indicate it moved to a new location in 1987 (Gloucester Street). It possibly changed its name to The Independant Bookshop at this point.

Sources:

Radical Bookshops Listing, Radical Bookshop History Project (November 2023) [Available online here, accessed 9.7.2025]

'The sad decline of the radical bookshop' on Leamington Spark blog [https://leamingtonspark.wordpress.com/tag/the-other-branch/, accessed 9.7.2025]

History Pin [https://www.historypin.org/en/explore/geo/37.77493,-122.419416,12/bounds/37.701352,-122.485162,37.848435,-122.35367/paging/1/, accessed 9..7.2025]

'Reading the Revolution: The Other Branch , Leamington's Radical Bookshop' on the Our Warwickshire website [https://www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/article/reading-revolution-branch-leamingtons-radical-bookshop, accessed 9.7.2025]