Chapter One Bookshop Design

This is a new shop in a 1960’s shopping arcade. A general bookshop had closed three years previously. Our client was formerly a children’s bookshop with a speciality in literacy problems supplying schools nationally. They wanted the bookshop to do three things: to be a general bookshop at the front, a children’s bookshop with teacher resources at the back and house their school box scheme behind the retail area.

We removed internal walls and a suspended ceiling, while positioning a circular counter in the middle of the shop to provide a soft divide between the general and the children’s bookshop. The high ceiling was painted bright yellow and fitted with suspended track and starry spots. The island units are on castors to facilitate teacher and pupil groups visiting.