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Royston gets first independent bookshop for 30 years

Paul Bowes Bow Books in RoystonPaul Bowes
Paul Bowes, 76, from Barkway, was semi-retired when he started planning Bow Books in Royston six months ago

A 76-year-old man has opened a town's first independent bookshop for 30 years to try and "fill a niche".

Paul Bowes was semi-retired when he started planning Bow Books in Royston, Hertfordshire, six months ago.

"I was bemoaning the lack of bookshops as so many of us have in recent years," he said.

"Nobody had done anything about it in Royston for 30 years, so I thought, 'I'm just sitting here, maybe I should be the one to do it?'."

Mr Bowes, from Barkway, said the last independent bookshop in the town was Manor Books, which closed in the early 1990s and stood opposite the site of his new shop on Angel Pavement.

He said with increasing competition from internet stores and e-books, he hoped his venture would provide the "chance to browse and handle a wide range of books" locally.

"The town seems to be a buzz with excitement to have an independent bookshop again," he said.

"Reading a book and going in a shop to find one is a completely different experience from reading on a screen.

"Books are not just a study item... but something to really enjoy, and to touch and to open and to feel, and then share the contents with each other."

Paul Bowes Bow Books in RoystonPaul Bowes
Mr Bowes hoped his venture would provide people with the "chance to browse and handle a wide range of books in their own town"

Mr Bowes said having "worked in books all his life" he had the experience and the contacts.

He previously worked at W H Smiths and publisher Collins before running his own shop in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, called the Book Castle for 25 years.

Paul Bowes Bow Books in RoystonPaul Bowes
The first floor has been turned into an event space and "community resource"

The two-floor Royston shop has a mix of new and second-hand books, which was "a blend that I hope should work in this day and age", said Mr Bowes.

The first floor has been designed to be like a living room and would act as an events space.

"Book shops can't be the traditional retailer they once were, but they were always a kind of meeting place," he said.

Mr Bowes added that retirement was far from his mind.

"It will keep going as long as I survive," he said.

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