Situated next to a sandy strip of Dorset beach, the Avon Beach Shop provides all the necessities for holiday makers and day trippers. There’s a ramp that makes disabled access possible and easy entry for families with buggies. The shop is divided into areas where a range merchandise is displayed. There’s a section for leisure wear and swimming costumes, a central counter with the till that acts as a newsagent with papers, sweets, ice creams and drinks for sale. Opposite, there’s a selection of gifts and to the right of the entrance you’ll find body-boards, buckets and spades and the like. Tucked away in a corner is the book department that provides a range of fiction, crime novels and local interest books. There are few book displays that have such a marvellous backdrop through the window of the shop.
Alongside adult books, there are shelves with titles for toddlers, children and young adults as well as a section dedicated to transport and travel. A stand holds pamphlets by local authors including non-fiction and poetry. The book department adds a unique feature to this beach-side shop, where music from the radio plays in the background and the decor is functional (owing to sandy/wet feet coming in from the beach).
Do you know of other bookshops set in unique locations?
Keep your feedback coming and I’ll be ready to reply although I won’t be making another post for a week or so. I’m off on my holidays via Stratford-upon-Avon and Cumbria to Edinburgh. What out for news from the Fringe and the Edinburgh Book Festival.
the writer is a lonely hunter 
My kind of place — it seems like it sells a bit of everything, with a touch of practicality (functional decor for the wet/sandy feet). I like Atlantic Books in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware — they’re a chain of bookstores and they have a wonderful selection of books for beach reading.
Atlantic Books has a FB page but no photos – I’ll have to check back again soon.
Looks like a great place. I would never want to leave the beach. Thanks Gail for telling us about these great places. You are becoming a book globetrotter.
It’s a shop worth visiting if in the Christchurch area
I knew bookstore set up in a desanctified church, somewhere in Massachusetts. Yet I’ve never been there. Would rather visit a bookstore on the beach; the locale compliments the wares.
Absolutely – here’s an article about the world’s 10 best bookshops. I can vouch for Hatchards – it has a fantastic 5th floor cafe with a view over London rooftops http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/jan/11/bestukbookshops
What a great discovery!
You’re right – the shop’s a gem!