All aboard: Inside Britain’s beloved second-hand bookshop

With 350,000 titles, Barter Books, housed in a Victorian railway station in Alnwick, Northumberland, is a literary pilgrimage site

The railway station in Alnwick, a market town in Northumberland, England, played the role it was meant to for decades – it was home to steam trains that ferried passengers to varied destinations. Today, the station, which was designed in 1887 and closed to passengers in the 1960s, is the home of Barter Books, one of the largest second-hand bookshops in Europe. The arched halls are packed with shelves carrying more than 350,000 books, a model railway running overhead, murals of writers, armchairs by open fires, and a café that serves tea (also coffee) and scones. For many, the “British Library of second-hand bookshops” has become a destination in itself.

The arched halls of Barter Books are packed with shelves carrying more than 350,000 titles. (Courtesy Barter Books)

The arched halls are packed with book shelves, a model railway running overhead, murals of writers, armchairs by open fires, and a café that serves tea and scones. (Courtesy Barter Books)

“It’s a remarkable building,” says Stuart Manley, who co-founded the shop with his wife Mary in 1991. “I established a small model factory within the disused railway station because it was and is a remarkable building. Mary had the idea of the bookshop (complete with the Barter Books name and book-swap concept) with the hope that it might help with the overheads during the summer months when the model business struggled.”

Barter Books began in a single room — the station’s old ticket office and parcels room. “From day one, it never let us down and people came,” Stuart remembers. “But, obviously, in nothing like the quantity of modern times. But we quickly understood that people liked what we were offering and that making them enjoy their visit (and therefore tell their friends) was as important as selling them anything. We were well aware of the book town of Hay-on-Wye and the annual half million visitors it attracts and that tourism was as important as bibliophiles.”

The couple leaned into that idea of experience. They added armchairs to invite people to linger, made space for open fires to ward off the Northumberland winter. A children’s corner was created so young readers could spend time while their parents browsed. The miniature trains running along tracks fixed to the walls looped the entire shop, creating a sense of movement.

In May 2025, the iconic bookstore was shortlisted for the title of ‘most beautiful bookstore in the world’ at the annual 1000 Libraries Award (Courtesy Barter Books)

“Every detail is intentional and created by Mary,” Stuart says. “Given that we understood that tourism was the key, her aim was to make it so every visitor would enjoy their visit — the feel of the place, the myriad details of which the model railways and mural are but two, and aided, of course, by a magnificent building. We hope that visitors will take away happy memories and tell their friends — very important in this day of Instagram, etc.”

It worked. Over three decades, the shop has grown from a small corner outlet into one that fills the entire station. More than 350,000 visitors arrive each year, making Barter Books one of the most visited bookshops in the UK.

In May 2025, the iconic bookstore was shortlisted for the title of ‘most beautiful bookstore in the world’ at the annual 1000 Libraries Award. It was one of 30 shops selected worldwide, judged on design, architecture, and online popularity, to compete in the bookstore category (The library of Dublin’s Trinity College ultimately won the title in July 2025).

A place to Barter

The shop’s name is not ornamental. Customers are invited to bring in books, receive credit, and use it towards new purchases. This rhythm of exchange is much loved by the locals (and visitors) as bags of well-read novels or outdated textbooks are brought to the counter and replaced with something fresh.

“Most second-hand and used bookstores run some kind of exchange system,” Stuart explains. “All we did was make it user-friendly and simple to use, which has made it very popular. But it is not the heart of the store — we use auctions and other sources like any other used bookstore.”

Even so, the barter element has become central to the shop’s identity. It ensures that the shelves are never static: a first edition Hardy might sit next to a stack of cookbooks, a worn Penguin Classic beside a glossy thriller. For visitors, it creates the sense that every book has made its way through more than a couple of readers before ending up here.

More than books

What makes Barter Books remarkable are the extras that turn it into an entire experience. On cold days, the fires in the old grates crackle and one can walk around, reading the many lines of poetry doodled on beams and arches. The model railway that links book columns in the central room never fails to delight children and adults alike. Over 40 glass cases display rare antiquarian titles, the volumes sharing space with battered paperbacks, underscoring Barter Books’ eclectic reach.

Art is everywhere, too. The “Famous Writers” mural, by local artist Peter Dodd, stretches 38 by 16 feet and depicts almost 40 life-size literary figures from the 19th century onward. The Railway Mural, commissioned in 2005, honours the men and women who worked at the station between 1850 and 1968, alongside the coats of arms of the railway companies that once operated here. A luminous Tennyson light installation by Colin Rose glows with the opening lines of Crossing the Bar, its fluorescent tubes a nod to poetry and the station’s last steam locomotive, Evening Star.

Other commissions add texture: an engraving of the station front by wood engraver Harry Brockway, a charming watercolour of the bookshop exterior by Charles Moore, and William Pym’s wrought iron lamp, which combines railway tracks with mythical literary destinations like Xanadu, Camelot, and Arcadia.

The Station Buffet serves food, tea, coffee, and cookies. (Courtesy Barter Books)

Even the café has its own story. In 2008, the shop’s manager, David Champion, stumbled on a forgotten room while searching for more space. Hidden behind a heavy door, untouched since the station’s last train chugged away, the room was derelict but held a small miracle: a green fern growing beneath a skylight, kept alive by a leaking drain. When Mary saw it, she drew up a new plan for it: “Our new buffet.”

Today, the Station Buffet serves food, tea, coffee, and cookies, drawing locals and travellers alike. An ice cream parlour was added recently, and has helped augment the charm of the space and make Barter Books a place where you can linger for hours.

The discovery of a poster

In 2000, while sifting through a box of books bought at auction, the Manleys stumbled across something that would link Barter Books to modern cultural history. Inside was a folded paper poster, printed in 1939 but never widely distributed. In bold white lettering on a plain red background, above the image of a crown, were the words: “Keep Calm and Carry On.”

It was part of a series of wartime propaganda designs, meant to reassure the British public if invasion or bombing brought panic. Millions had been printed, but most were pulped without being used. The Alnwick copy was one of the rare survivors.

The Manleys had it framed and hung behind the till. The customers wanted one, and Barter Books began producing reproductions. The design soon took on a life of its own and has since then been found on t-shirts, mugs, posters, tea towels, and endless parodies.

The discovery brought international attention to the shop, though Stuart insists it was more a curiosity than a turning point. Still, it added another layer to Barter Books; it was a bookshop, sure, but one that was also a keeper of cultural memory.

Surviving and thriving

Independent bookshops have faced tough years, challenged by online retail, supermarket chains, and the e-book revolution. But Barter Books has thrived, drawing more visitors with each passing year.

“Bookshops are surviving very well and the ‘end of the book’ — a popular media theme at the time of the emergence of Kindle — was somewhat premature!” Stuart says. “Indeed, Kindle appears to have been a positive factor in increasing readership and the production of physical books continue to thrive. Not forgetting that a significant part of the business, such as antiquarian and collector’s books (and ‘Books do Furnish a Room’), are untouched by the digital age.”

Co-founders Stuart Manley and his wife Mary in front of the Keep Calm poster that was discovered in the store (Courtesy Barter Books)

The appeal of Barter Books lies in what the digital age cannot offer: the rustle of pages, the warmth of a fire on a wet afternoon, the chance to explore new genres, and the serendipity of stumbling across a beat-up book.

Stuart says what remains most important is not the number of visitors or the fame of the ‘Keep Calm’ poster, but the memory that each person carries away. “We hope visitors will take away happy memories,” he says. “That’s what matters most.”

It is easy to see why they do. For Barter Books isn’t just another bookstore; it’s a place that lets you pause, peruse a new (or old) book, and forget the weather outside. The rails may be silent, but the station is the setting for bookish adventures galore!

Teja Lele is an independent editor and writes on books, travel and lifestyle.