One chapter is closing and another one will begin for the Blue House Bookshop Company in York.
A staple of York’s bookshop scene, the Blue House Bookshop at 10 Bootham has announced that it will be closing its bricks-and-mortar shop for a new venture.
From September, York’s only specialist children’s bookseller will be transforming into a ‘social enterprise’, and will take its core values of the bookshop into schools, colleges, and communities.
The Blue House Bookshop was founded in October 2019 by owner Karen Walker.
“When we set up the business a major motivator was to encourage the love of reading to, and for, children,” owner Karen wrote in the newsletter, which went out last week.
“After seven years in the shop, we are now refocussing on that aim.
“We have decided the business could achieve that goal better by becoming a social enterprise with that purpose. We want to take our shop into schools, colleges and into the communities bringing to them creative writing courses and storytelling performances to illustrate the world that reading books can open up.”
Karen explains that Blue House Books is in the process of becoming a Community Interest Company – which means the business will be able to bid for trust funding and supporter donations to help make that purpose a reality.
“Because of this we did some overdue maths and worked out that we couldn’t keep the bricks and mortar shop on.”
“Closing the shop opens a new page as we become a social enterprise, Blue House Books, aiming to support children and young people with the love of books in this National Year of Reading,” Karen told YorkMix.
“We want to take our creative writing classes, storytelling workshops and even learning chess into schools to encourage reading for pleasure, which is vital for children – and grown-ups too!”
Though the physical shop will be closing, The Blue House Bookshop will continue with their Bookshop.org storefront, and will keep their website – where you can also order books and take out book subscriptions.
In her newsletter, Karen extends a “sincere thanks and love to each and everyone who has encountered the Blue House Bookshop as a browser, customer, subscriber, illustrator, author”.
Over the seven years “not everything has run smoothly.” Challenges have included two Covid shutdowns – one within six months of opening – flooding destroying a thousand pounds worth of books, and the collapse of a supplier who “owed us hundreds of pounds.
But there have been plenty of highlights too – such as author visits, school visits, creative courses, seasonal events, and special events like one day 24 hour opening and kids running the bookshop for Independent Bookshop Day.
Over the next couple of months, the bookshop will be hosting several closing events and offers. These include ‘Buy One Get One Free’ deals through July and early August, special teachers days in July, and a celebration day and CIC kickoff day in August.
“It’s very sad to have to let the shop go, but as Dr Seuss would say ‘don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.'”
