Small City Bookshop opened in Redfield less than a week ago making it one of two book shops to have opened on Church Road this month. The independent shop sells a range of fiction and non-fiction for adults and children as well as a dedicated section for Bristol books.
The owners have capacity to expand their current range of books and said they will do so according to the demand of the local community. They can also order in any book at a customer’s request.
Business partners Sarah Balfour and Christie Cluett met through work and built up a friendship through their mutual love of books. Sarah has background in book selling having previously worked in Waterstones and independent bookshops, and Christie has previously held storytelling events and was an organiser for the Bristol Festival of Literature.
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They plan to hold author events, children’s story telling sessions and possibly comedy nights in the future. Christie, who ran an adult storytelling event Talking Tales in Stokes Croft for five years, will be moving the event to Small City Bookshop.
Christie said: “We’ve had a really great response, the weekend was really busy. We've had a lot of people coming in really excited about a book shop opening up because there’s not really anything that’s servicing East Bristol.
“We’ve had really good support from the community, a lot of people giving us a thumbs up at the window. We started small on our range and are seeing what the community responds to and what sells.
“We have the capacity to expand the range and add more table displays. We can order books and they come the next day.
“We’re going to be doing a range of events. We have plans to use the space as much as we can now that we’ve created something nice.”
Prior to November 5 when the Good Bookshop opened its doors at TWO FOUR SIX (on 246 Church Road), there were no bookshops in East Bristol. Now there are two and they are both female-led independent businesses.
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