Whenever I travel around my home country of the UK, I’m always keeping my eyes open for the best independent bookshops to explore. However much I love regularly browsing my local favourites, there is just something special about entering a never-before-visited bookstore and discovering what it has to offer.
Over Christmas, I visited Lyme Regis in Devon on a family holiday – we sought out the town’s bookshops as a respite from a somewhat rainy beach walk! Lyme Regis boasts two independent booksellers, Lyme Regis Books and The Sanctuary Bookshop. Both are set in a sweet, authentic high street with lots of quirky cafés, where you can enjoy a coffee and a pastie after your leisurely book browse.
Lyme Regis Books
Lyme Regis Books is such a relaxing space – it’s light and spacious so you can browse without crowding. The service was very friendly and they had a varied, up-to-date selection of both fiction and non-fiction. I bought a beautiful paperback copy of The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper, which has been on my reading list for ages, while my Dad chose a non-fiction history book about D-Day.
“Our stock covers all areas of fiction and non-fiction and we have lots of books and maps for local walking and exploring our world-famous Jurassic Coast.”
~ Lyme Regis Books website
The Sanctuary Bookshop
Unfortunately, The Sanctuary Bookshop was closed for Christmas when I visited Lyme Regis, but I did spend a good while just peering in the window! This bookshop is a secondhand alternative teeming with rare editions and eclectic finds, complemented by vintage-style artwork. It had the cluttered, treasure-trove feel that I always love in secondhand bookstores. There is even Bed & Breakfast accommodation above the shop for a book lover’s dream holiday!
“This is a shop that Jane Austen, Dickens, or even Darwin would have enjoyed.”
~ The Sanctuary Bookshop website
Lyme Regis residents are lucky to have the best of both worlds when it comes to book browsing!
Have you visited any UK bookshops? Where are your favourites? Let me know in the comments, I would love to hear from you!
OffBeatBooks 
These sound great, what a shame you couldn’t get into the second one. Bizarrely, Birmingham has not had any indie bookshops at all for most of the 16 years I’ve lived here, and we’ve had to rely on Waterstones and Oxfam Books (handily I have two of the latter within walking distance). We then got a Foyles, and now we have The Bookshop on the Green in Bournville which has a brilliant deep and wide stock for a tiny shop, and there’s a children’s speciality bookshop in Bearwood.
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It was lovely, I always enjoy exploring new bookshops! I’m glad you’ve had some independent bookshops pop up near you, it sounds like you have plenty of choice. There’s an Oxfam Bookshop not far from me as well which is great, I do love a secondhand bargain! 📚❤️ X x x
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