Sad Souvenirs: Defunct Bookshops’ Bookmarks

I’m a dedicated bookmark user and probably have at least 120–150 that I rotate through, matching marker to book subject matter or reading location whenever possible. A sorry subset of my collection commemorates bookshops (secondhand and/or new stock) that no longer exist. I was a customer at a couple of these, but only know of the others through bookmarks that I found at random, e.g. in secondhand purchases from other stores. Through Google Earth, I tracked down what you’ll find where these shops used to be.

 

Shops I visited:

 

Déjà Vu Books (Bowie, Maryland)

This was my local secondhand bookshop when I was a teenager. I would wheedle occasional visits out of my mother until my friends and I got our driving licenses and could go by ourselves. My friend Rachael and I would stop there after karate on a Saturday morning.

What I remember purchasing there: A near-complete set of Dickens’s works, blue/green cloth hardbacks, early 20th century, for $30; an Agatha Christie omnibus I gave to my mother.

What it is now: Chi Bella Natural Hair Boutique

 

Water Lane Book Shop (Salisbury, England)

My husband is a Hampshire lad. Salisbury was a relatively nearby town we would explore when I went to visit him while we were dating or engaged. An average daytrip would include touring the cathedral, having tea at the Polly Tearooms, and – in a waterside location just along from the cathedral square – having a nose through the well-stocked shelves of this compact shop.

What I remember purchasing there: Lots of my secondhand David Lodge paperbacks.

What it is now: A private residence (it had just sold as of Streetview in June 2018)

 

Others I only learned about through their orphan bookmarks:

 

Barnwood Books (Hagerstown, Maryland)

The bookmark looks old enough that I had to ask myself whether the shop might have been supplanted by Wonder Book & Video, a small chain I first discovered as a young teen. It has branches in Frederick (where I went to college; I worked there part-time in my senior year) and Hagerstown, and most recently opened in Gaithersburg. At the least, Wonder Book probably absorbed their stock when they closed.

What it is now: An empty storefront between a gastropub and a home fashions store (as of October 2019)

 

The Book Mark (Toronto, Canada)

I found this bookmark inside a secondhand book I bought from the Frederick Wonder Book & Video. I assumed the shop was still extant, but I checked in with Marcie (Buried in Print) and she sent me an article explaining that it was priced out of the neighbourhood and closed in 2012. It had been the oldest independent bookstore in Toronto. (This article gives more information.)

What it is now: Nails on Bloor, a nails and waxing parlour

 

Paperback Exchange (Hereford, England)

I can’t recall where I found this bookmark, but I wish a shop with this policy still existed! From the reverse: “The Paperback Exchange system: up to HALF the purchase price of books bought from us, against further purchases; up to a QUARTER on good quality paperbacks bought elsewhere.”

What it is now: On the June 2018 Streetview, it’s either the closed-down charity shop or the school uniform shop.

 

A nice postscript:

 

Royal Oak Bookshop (Front Royal, Virginia)

The bookmark I found in a used book looked so old I wasn’t sure if the shop would still exist. I was going to include it in the post as one of the defunct ones. But just to be sure, I decided to try hunting it down through the website…

 

 

 

 

 

Do you commemorate any deceased bookshops through their memorabilia?