Barter Books
Just like books can transport you to other realms, so, too, can the best bookshops - and none more so than Barter Books in Alnwick. Hidden inside the historic market town’s decommissioned Victorian railway station, for over thirty years Barter Books has welcomed visitors from all over the globe.
The Barter Books story began back in 1991, when, faced with a rather daunting overdraft, former art history teacher from Memphis, Tennessee, Mary Manley, dreamt up an idea to open a secondhand bookshop. Inspired by her time working at bookshops in New York City, Mary had always wondered whether she could create something special in her adopted home of Northumberland. It wouldn’t be just any bookshop, though. Her unorthodox business proposition was based on a swap system, whereby customers could trade in their own books for credit in the shop. Her husband Stuart - who at the time was manufacturing miniature train parts in a small factory within Alnwick’s disused railway station - was taken by her idea. The model railway business was becoming increasingly challenging, after all, it was the early nineties, and children all of a sudden were now far more interested in video games than train sets. Persuaded by Mary’s enthusiasm and eager to keep the debt collectors at bay, Stuart suggested to Mary that she open a shop in the front room of his manufacturing plant. A partnership was forged, Barter Books was born, and so began a journey that would eventually result in a bookshop with a stock so extensive it would later be described by the New Statesman magazine as ‘The British Library of secondhand bookshops’.
The train station which houses the bookshop was designed by William Bell in 1887 and was built to a remarkable size and grandeur for what was a prosperous, yet small, provincial market town. This anomaly can be explained by the presence of the Dukes of Northumberland inhabiting the nearby Alnwick Castle. In the 19th century an impressive train station was deemed necessary in order to satisfy visiting royalty and VIP guests!
Trains continued to operate out of the station until 1968, when services ceased as part of the Beeching rationalisation of Britain’s railways which saw a major series of route closures and service cuts. Today, the bookshop occupies seven rooms of the former Victorian station, each retaining its original character while serving new purposes. The main entrance, once the station’s parcel room, still features the barred window where passengers used to purchase tickets. Beyond that window lies the station’s original entrance, now home to Barter Books’ enchanting children’s room.
In the central room, a model train continuously circles at head height between the shelves near the main counter, delighting visitors as it chugs along. Adding to the charm is a giant mural featuring literary giants such as Charlotte Brontë and Edward Lear. The former first-class ladies' and gentlemen’s waiting rooms have been transformed into a cosy seating area for the Station Buffet, a hot food counter now housed in the old boiler room. Remarkably, this boiler room remained hidden until its rediscovery in 2008, untouched for decades. Inside, a resilient fern was found thriving, nourished by nothing more than a skylight and a leaking drainpipe. In the gentlemen’s waiting room, a painting of John Patterson, the last station master to hold the prestigious ‘top hat’ position, overlooks diners as they enjoy hearty meals beside crackling fires. The main bookshop space occupies the station’s former outgoing platform, now lined with shelves holding books on everything from horticulture and natural history to mountaineering and mythology. If you look closely, you can still see the faint outlines of where the train tracks once ran.
While Mary has little interest in trains, she does have a nose for a good book. What started over 30 years ago in one room now fills more than 9,000 square feet of the 32,000 square foot building. Still to this day the bookshop runs partly on a Barter system - homage to a similar shop in Mary’s hometown of Memphis. Customers are encouraged to swap their old books for new (secondhand) stock. The shop welcomes work by evergreen authors and will pay handsomely for unusual or first-edition books. The couple also attend many auctions throughout the year in their search for antiquarian items. As a result the stock at Barter Books is as wide ranging. From a huge choice of everyday fiction and non-fiction books to rare volumes and 1st editions that sell for thousands of pounds.
After over 30 years in business, Stuart and Mary remain resolute in their quest to create the perfect bookshop. Most of their profits go towards enhancing the Barter Books experience or maintaining the 135-year-old, Grade-II listed building that houses it. While the historic former railway station brims with charm, it also demands constant care. Stuart and Mary, however, consider this their privilege. They are dedicated to preserving and restoring the original station’s features, ensuring that both the building and the bookshop continue to delight visitors for years to come.
Even in their seventies, the pair continue to work on bold and ambitious plans for the future. Mary envisions restoring the entire glass roof—a major project that would not only revive the building’s original architecture, but also flood the shop with natural light. Meanwhile, Stuart dreams of seeing trains return to the station. As the founder of the Aln Valley Railway Project, he has been campaigning since 1997 to restore the heritage railway line between Alnmouth and Alnwick, closed by the Beeching cuts of the 1960s. His vision began to take shape in 2012 when construction started, but the work continues. Currently, visitors can enjoy a steam train ride from Alnwick’s Lionheart Station to Greenrigg Bridge, a temporary two-mile terminus. With just over half a mile left to reconnect the line to Alnmouth, Stuart’s dream is tantalisingly close to becoming a reality.
Barter Books is far more than a bookshop. The atmosphere the Mary and Stuart have created is warm, cosy and inviting, with open fires, comfortable armchairs and the hum of conversation mingling amidst the rustle of turning pages. It is a place where everyone is welcome and you’re invited to stay as long as you like.
Photography by Carla McClaren