Over the past few years the UK has seen a notable growth in independent, Black-owned bookshops. Fuelled partly by the Black Lives Matter movement and a broader push for diversity, these stores are opening in cities from London to Brighton, carrying stories by Black writers and for Black readers. Unlike larger chains, they curate shelves with purpose: ensuring books by Black authors are easy to find and that readers of colour “see themselves as heroes” in literature. In doing so, they offer more than books – they create community hubs and “safe spaces” long missing from mainstream book retail.
Black-owned bookshops in Britain have a long legacy, stretching back to the 1960s. In 1966 John La Rose and Sarah White founded New Beacon Books in London, the UK’s first Caribbean publishing house and bookshop. New Beacon specialised in Black British, Caribbean and African literature, helping build the Black British literary scene. In the 1970s Jessica and Eric Huntley opened Bogle-L’Ouverture Publications (later Walter Rodney Bookshop) in West London, which became “a central hub for community action and creativity” in Black culture. These pioneers were vital for educating and organising British African-Caribbean communities, despite threats such as FBI scrutiny and fires seen in their American counterparts.
By the 2000s, however, Black-owned bookshops were scarce. For decades New Beacon stood almost alone – indeed, it was widely cited as “Britain’s first black bookshop and the only remaining independent Black publisher” in the UK. Even New Beacon nearly had to close: in late 2021 community supporters crowdfunded over £81,000 to keep it open. This dependence on goodwill underlines how hard it has been to sustain such stores.
In the late 2010s and early 2020s, a fresh wave of Black-owned bookstores began to emerge across the UK. These new enterprises often sprang from a founder’s personal frustration with mainstream bookshops or a desire to fill clear gaps in representation. For example, in Brighton Afrori Books opened in 2021. Its founder, Carolynn Bain, was “tired of going to bookstores and having to search for ages to find the tiny ‘BAME’ section” for Black authors.
Afrori launched as an online store in 2020 and quickly turned into a brick-and-mortar shop after a £10,000 crowdfunding campaign. Today Afrori prides itself on offering “one of the biggest selection of books by Black authors, in one place”. Its shop (now at Brighton’s Brighthelm Centre) doubles as a welcoming café and community space – a “safe space” to browse with a coffee – while also running author events, yoga for women of colour, school clubs and other anti-racism programmes.
In London, children’s bookshops have also gone Black-owned. Melanin Magic opened in July 2023 in South London under founder Kelly-Jade Nicholls. A former school governor, Nicholls had already been supplying Black children’s books through her Woke Babies subscription box. Seeing “huge demand” for more diverse kids’ stories, she launched Melanin Magic as a “fun place” for children to find books with Black protagonists.
Nicholls describes her shop as giving Black children everyday stories in which they can “see themselves as heroes and problem solvers”. Early feedback shows its value: parents report it was “needed”, and Nicholls delights in “seeing kids’ faces light up” when they visit. Crucially, Melanin Magic was created with the aim of making Black literature accessible – so even families of all backgrounds can enjoy more representative books together.
Another London example is Round Table Books, an independent store in Brixton (founded around 2017-18). Co-directed by Aimée Felone and Meera Ghanshamdas, Round Table specialises in inclusive children’s books – stocking only picture books written or illustrated by Black, Asian or other minority ethnic authors. It was launched after a Centre for Literacy in Primary Education report revealed that just 1% of UK children’s books in 2017 featured a BAME main character. (Round Table’s owner Aimee Felone organized a pop-up for Black books before crowdfunding the permanent store.) Round Table won the 2023 British Book Awards Best Children’s Bookshop, reflecting how it has become “very much loved” in the Black British community.
London also has older establishments like Books of Africa, an African-heritage-focused publisher and bookstore, and Pempamsie, a Brixton-based African cultural shop founded in the 1990s (Pempamsie means “unity is strength”). Pempamsie carries books on Black history, spirituality and health alongside art and wellness goods. In Tottenham, historian Nkrumah Kebeji (Pepukayi) runs Maa Maat Cultural Centre (Pepukayi Books), a niche bookshop “full of books that can only be described as ‘very Black’” – focusing on Black history, art and liberation. Each of these is a small local business run by members of the community.
On the creative side, some novel models have appeared: Imagine Me Stories is a children’s book subscription box (by Keisha Ehigie) that delivers diverse picture books to families each month. No Ordinary Bookshop (Angel Miller) operates an online store and pop-up events with BAME-centered children’s titles. And Jacaranda Books in Leeds is an acclaimed independent publisher whose website sells its titles (and others) including many Black and diverse voices. These initiatives echo similar ethnic bookshop trends in other countries, showing a global hunger for representation.
Black-owned bookshops matter for many reasons. Firstly, they improve representation. They ensure that Black British readers (children and adults) can easily find books about people who look and live like them. As one shop owner put it, black children deserve to “be children” reading stories with Black protagonists, not just learning about historical figures in dry texts. This counters the isolation felt when mainstream shops only relegate diverse stories to small sections. In this way, Black bookstores “amplify voices” otherwise sidelined by the industry. They also help nurture Black writers; by stocking and recommending underrepresented authors, the shops boost those authors’ sales and visibility.
Despite enthusiasm, independent bookstores always face hurdles – made tougher in niche markets. The Covid-19 pandemic hit many already-lean operations hard. Round Table Books, which launched by crowdfunding a permanent shop, admitted it was “hit very hard by the Covid-19 crisis”. New Beacon had similarly grim news in late 2021, saying lockdown losses and rising costs forced it to consider closing its historic Finsbury Park shop. Only a community fund drive saved it. These stories underline that Black-owned bookshops often operate on thin margins in a retail environment dominated by online giants.
They also exist in a still overwhelmingly white industry. One US analysis noted only about 6% of all indie bookstores in America were Black-owned, leaving many communities with no local options. The UK has no similar statistic, but the scarcity of Black stores historically suggests a comparable situation here. As the Washington Post commentary asks of US booksellers: as demand for Black bookshops resurges, “will we see the likes of Drum & Spear again?”. In the UK, emerging owners hope so. By opening now, they are “inspiring a lot more book lovers to create a safe space within their area”. Each new shop helps prove the model can work.
This is part of a worldwide trend. In the US, the murder of George Floyd in 2020 triggered a boom in anti-racist reading, and many Black-owned bookstores reported record sales as mainly white audiences sought literature on race. Google searches for “Black bookstores” jumped 100-fold immediately after Floyd’s death.
Similar awakenings happened in Canada, the Caribbean and beyond, where independent outlets are stepping up to meet demand for African-heritage stories. In Britain, the effect was more modest but clear: Black and mixed-race writers like Bernardine Evaristo and Reni Eddo-Lodge shot up the charts in 2020, and initiatives like the Black British Book Festival are pushing diversity. Within this global push, UK bookshops like Afrori and Melanin Magic connect to a larger narrative of literary activism.
Independent Black-owned bookshops may still be small in number, but their impact is outsized. They fill vital gaps in representation, help nurture Black talent, and build community in ways few other businesses can. As Afrori’s Carolynn Bain and others often say, everyone deserves to “see themselves as heroes” in the books they read. In gathering readers around those stories, Black-owned bookshops not only enrich our literary culture but also make a powerful statement: Black stories matter, both as art and as inspiration. Their rise – from historic pioneers to today’s new shops – is reshaping UK bookselling and ensuring Britain’s bookshelves finally reflect its diverse society.
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