The shop has many extra features: open fires in the Winter, beloved by all. The Station Buffet with good plain food, coffee, tea and cookies. Plus Paradise, the new ice cream parlour. A model railway acting as a link between the book columns of the central room, along with poetry lines. Three stunning 40-foot murals. Numerous restored station features. Generous seating. A children's room with enough toys to allow parents and grandparents to browse elsewhere in peace - provided one guardian is left to look after the children! And a whole huge room lined with over forty glass cases containing many of the more interesting antiquarian books.

Preservation and Restoration: because of its architecture and history, the owners have done what they can (and felt privileged to do so) to restore and enhance their holding - as and when they could afford to. To that end, the lovely old canopy outside has been re-exposed, the fireplaces put back into working order, a missing skylight glassed in, rooms plastered and repainted. All of which, to our pleasure, has brought, after its closure in 1968, public life back to a building that was made for it.

But there's still much work to be done. And probably always will be. Just as Stuart dreams of bringing trains back into the station, for example, I dream of restoring the entire glass roof. And we both dream of having the time to just read a book. Mary Manley

The Owners

Country Living, in March 2020 put it thusly:


"Just as books can transport you to another place, so, to, can the best bookshops - and none more so than this one. Housed in Alnwick's grand Victorian station, Barter Books is one of Britain's biggest secondhand book stores..."

Read on for a wonderful photojournal of the remarkable, intimate backstory of Barter Books, from a visitor's perspective.

Alight here for a Ripping Yarn