I expect my local highstreet looks much like yours, same old supermarkets and pound shops with the odd Boots and WHSmith thrown in for good measure. It makes shopping slightly boring. However, Wood Green has one good shop that is all our own – The Big Green Bookshop – an independent bookshop that aims to inject some life, culture and uniqueness back into our high street, or High Road if you’re being picky.
The Big Green Bookshop was opened in 2008 after the only bookshop in Wood Green, Waterstones, closed down. I’ve loved following the process of setting up the shop via their blog.
The bookshop is much much more that a bookshop and holds many events and is an important part of the local community:
- Author events including Will Self, Mark Billingham, David Vann, Karen Maitland, Christopher Fowler, Laura Dockrill, Magnus Mills and even Maisy Mouse!
- Musical evenings, film nights and historical walks
- Well over 300 visits so far to the local schools in Haringey, Enfield and Barnet helping them to promote literacy with author visits, talks, storytelling and whatever else we can.
- Monthly knitting groups, quizzes, writers groups and board games days (and we’re about to start a comedy night.)
- Two book groups.
- Weekly storytelling and singing for the under 5’s.
- Supporting local talent by holding book launches, poetry readings and talks by the cream of North London’s literary stars.
- Even a place to leave your shopping if it gets too heavy and to sit down with a free cup of tea or coffee.
Yes, the owners have a great sense of humour too. However, like many small businesses they are struggling and I would hate to lose such a great, friendly little shop which would make the high street look like any other high street once again. Perhaps you could pop in and buy a book, order online, attend an event or help spread the word – anything to help keep the bookshop open.
Thank you for reading!
