Ely and Cambridge - Day 1

My feet ache and my legs hurt more than I expected. It’s tiring walking around bookshops all day. 

I thought I’d start in Ely where I live. I like Ely. It is the 5th smallest city in England and its cathedral was built in 1083. It is so small and old that I think it is a scale model of a real city. 11th century builders had a dry run  at building a pretend city, making a few mistakes before building proper cities in Norwich and Cambridge. It’s inhabitants are friendly and intelligent and it is natural to find a few bookshops in Ely. 

1. Topping my list of booksellers to visit was Topping & Co on the high street in Ely. It was opened in 2002 by Robert & Louise Topping. Robert had previously worked for Waterstones. It has stores in Bath, Edinborough, St Andrews and Ely.

Toppings is a remarkably big bookshop hidden behind a small shop-front. It hides It has 3 floors of books and extends a long way back.

It covers all subject areas but has perhaps most books on history and travel. Staff are friendly and knowledgeable. It organises many guest speakers throughout the year. The shop is relaxed, and with tables and classical music in the background it is easy to settle down and start reading undisturbed. After walking up two flights of steep stairs to the top I was particularly pleased to be offered a free cup of good quality free coffee and a biscuit. 

Topping has a website but it doesn't sell books online.

2. The Works, technically a bookshop, is also on the high street. The Works provides low-priced, educational and remaindered books that make ideal presents. In Ely, their offering is limited. However, you can order books online and get them delivered to the local store. 

I like The Works because their books present information very clearly and you can’t get them anywhere else. Hang on… if it’s a remaindered bookshop then the books should have appeared elsewhere first! I asked one of the shop assistants why I’d never seen their books in other bookshops. He didn’t know. I suspect that their books are commissioned to be small-print and only sold to The Works. That's just a hunch. Their website doesn't explain this anomaly.

The Works is popular. I have never been into one of their shops that is empty,

but I’ve been into many empty bookshops.

3. Burrows Bookshop in High Street Passage is a bookshop that was empty. It is a very small bookshop run by Burrows Newsagent that specialised in children’s and local history books. It does not match its website in range.

In fact it felt like a bookshop that was closing down. Rumour is that it is closing down. I asked Burrows Newsagent when it is closing down but was told it isn’t closing down. It’s lease is up for review. When is it’s lease up for review? Soon. How Soon? Soon. These replies suggest it will be closing down as soon as Burrows has worked out the press release.

4. Octagon Books is approximately at 1 Lynn Road, entered via Cloisters Antiques. It is owned by the chatty and friendly Barry Lonsdale. Octagon Books is Ely’s only dedicated secondhand bookshop and has been running for over 20 years. It mainly has books on transport and gardening. There aren’t many books and being a secondhand bookshop it depends on what’s available at the time. The books fill a couple of small rooms.

More impressive than the bookshop is the vinyl and CD collection in the basement of Cloisters Antiques, organised by Mike Langham from Andy’s Records which sadly closed in 2003. Flicking through the records is truly nostalgic for anyone who remembers the 1960s, 1970s or 80s. Being in a basement it feels so authentic!

Cambridge

Cambridge is a full-sized city. Given its size, it doesn't seem to have many bookshops. Being a university city, its bookshops tend to be more academic. I visited its two secondhand bookshops and three other bookshops in the city centre. 

5. Sarah Key Books is an antiquarian bookshop in St Edwards Passage. It has antiquarian books and specialises in children’s books. It is very, very small on the ground floor. When I arrived there was also a tall man in the bookshop which effectively meant nobody else could enter. When he left and I entered I had to take care not to knock into books when I turned round. Fortunately I’m used to confined spaces because I live on a narrowboat.

The bookshop is said to be haunted. It also specialised in children’s books. I asked the man at the till if it was cruel to children to put their books into a haunted house. He confirmed that he actually never had children in the bookshop. He said it was because they didn’t have any money. I suspect the wicked witch who lived on the top floor might have been the real reason.

Upstairs was bigger than downstairs. It was filled with children’s hardback classics from a time when children seemed to live in a world of fiction before the internet was invented. There were Just William books at £30 each, Jennings books at about the same price, Billy Bunter first editions for around £75, and Enid Blyton’s books for £5. Her books were noticeably cheaper than other books. Perhaps her writing style doesn’t suit modern readers. 

Anyone who is nostalgic for classic childhood books would really enjoy visiting this bookseller.

6. David’s Bookshop is about two minutes walk away from Sarah Key Books. It is larger, but when I visited it had about ten people in it which made it hard to get round. Upstairs it sells modern books; downstairs it has antiquarian books.

The upstairs was limited and uninspiring. Downstairs was amazing, not because of the range but because some of the books were pristine and first-editions of classics like Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations or Bertrand Russell’s History of Western Philosophy.

It was the place for book collectors who would treat each book as a sacred text, and enter the square room with a humble bow of respect as if taking part in a masonic ritual. The books were expensive but not overpriced for antiquarian books. Here is their website.

7. Cambridge University Press Bookshop in Trinity Street was described as a ‘showroom’ for Cambridge University Press. They only sold CUP books, except for a few works of classical literature. It was very relaxing and people were reading academic books. Classical music played in the background. They had a good range of books but they were all academic in nature. If you wanted to delve into academic material on a particular subject it was good. Some of the titles were quite catchy, such as “Learn to Write Badly: how to succeed in the Social Sciences”. I was nearly tempted to start dipping into the Communication Disorders Workbook. 

CUP bookshop sells itself as the oldest bookshop in England. This doesn’t make it a good bookshop. Nearly all of the current CUP published stock is available in this shop. Now that's more interesting.

8. Heffers in Trinity Street is big. At first I didn’t like it, but now I’ve visited it for this challenge I am starting to like it. It has a vast range of books and is very browsable. It started in 1870’s I was told, as an academic bookshop but has since moved into more popular titles. The shelf width per topic does favour academic books. There are no books on diesel locomotive design or caring for your Great Dane dog that I could see, for instance. They have a section graphic novels though, and quite a lot of jigsaws and games. I wouldn’t have expected jigsaws in a bookshop.

Heffers, or Blackwells to use its married name, is present on many university campuses. There is no doubt that Heffers is a successful bookshop. I left with a book I didn’t know I wanted, and felt good about it.

9. Waterstones is on Sydney Street in Cambridge, and is present in most large cities in the UK. Founded by Tim Waterstone in 1982 it has over 280 stores. 

When you’ve visited one Waterstones you feel like you’ve visited all of them. They have a certain feel about them. They offer a comprehensive range of titles and if you want to explore a subject it’s the one place you can go and be quite certain you’ll find a relevant book. They are spacious and usually have a cafe. Compared to other bookshops I’ve visited, Waterstones feels a bit commercial and clinical. The displays are arranged perfectly and the books don’t feel as browsable. Perhaps that’s because you have to walk up three flights of stairs and through a big building to get to the section you want. Perhaps it is because I find slightly chaotic books grab attention better than books in neat rows.

Tomorrow, legs willing, I'll visit London.