Help keep Bookish on the High Street

Hello! My name’s  Emma and I'm the owner of Bookish, an independent bookshop that opened its doors on the High Street of Crickhowell in 2010. We started small at 23 High Street and moved to our current location at Number 18 in 2017, where we now have 2 floors of books, a cafe, a bar and an events space. I LOVE my bookshop and I know that it's become a huge social hub for the community alongside attracting people to the town from far and wide.

 

This year our landlord has decided to sell the building, giving us the first opportunity to buy it and secure the future of the bookshop. WONDERFUL! However, as we all know, the past 18 months have been somewhat horrific for small businesses like ours and although it's a fabulous opportunity, we have very little in the way of funds (even after looking down the back of the sofas and bookshelves)

 

The banks are very cautious, everything takes double the time it used to and we have a deadline looming. As you can imagine, losing the bookshop is not an option as I just don't think the town will ever be the same, I will never be the same and then there's our fabulous team to think of too. We've all put so much time, love and hard work into creating a space for everybody and we have made so many wonderful friends through bookselling, authors, publishers, other booksellers and of course our amazing customers.

 

We need to make all this happen to meet a deadline of 31st January 2022, as otherwise the building could be offered on the open market and, well the possibilities are unthinkable.

 

So after so many people suggested it on Twitter, I thought I'd set this up as we need help and a lot of cheerleading to make this happen, we don't live in an inexpensive part of the world and this is a big old building so the costs are scary. I hope that this fundraiser will be able to help us at least meet the costs of purchasing the building and securing our future.

 

I can't even tell you what it would mean to have that security to be able to plan, to campaign, to support and to thrive.

 

Thank you

#bookylove