Beloved independent bookshop in East Sussex set to close: doors open for the last time this week

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A beloved independent bookshop in East Sussex has announced it will close soon.

The Hastings Bookshop at 5 Trinity Street, in Trinity Triangle, said on Facebook on New Year’s Day that the team has ‘made the very difficult decision to close’ following ‘four amazing years’ of business.

Charlie Crabb, who opened the bookshop during the Covid pandemic in 2020, said: “We achieved so much in four years; we curated a selection of books that reflects our creative, diverse and outward-looking community in Hastings. We helped create The Hastings Bookshop Poetry Festival, The Hastings Queer Book Festival and the What We Read Next Bookclub. We set up our newsletter, The Hastings Review of Books. We’ve hosted around 100 events with leading authors from around the country and the world.

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“I am so lucky to have had this opportunity to run a bookshop in my hometown and I’m so proud of everything we created together! But the reality is that running a small business is extremely hard. Keeping an independent bookshop open, especially against so many odds, was never going to be easy, and running a small business over these last four years in particular has taken a huge emotional and financial toll.”

The Hastings Bookshop said the team has 'made the very difficult decision to close'. Photo: Google Street ViewThe Hastings Bookshop said the team has 'made the very difficult decision to close'. Photo: Google Street View
The Hastings Bookshop said the team has 'made the very difficult decision to close'. Photo: Google Street View

Charlie said the bookshop survived several Covid lockdowns, an ongoing cost of living crisis and ‘numerous global, local and personal challenges’.

He said: “Despite all the setbacks, we kept going. Now it is time to start a new chapter – whatever that might hold.”

Charlie said there are ‘too many people to thank in one post’ but said: “I really couldn’t have done this without the love, help and support of my friends and family. A huge thank you to my right hand man, Elliot, who has been a dream to work alongside these past few years. To our wonderful neighbours at Stooge and the rest of the America Ground. Thank you to all the authors who came and gave a talk or a reading at the bookshop, to all of our indie publishing and bookselling colleagues and friends, and most of all to our incredible, loyal customers – all of whom I have loved getting to know, I honestly can’t thank you enough.”

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He said The Hastings Bookshop will be open for the last time during the week beginning Thursday, January 2 (10am) and encouraged people to visit and ‘say goodbye to the shop’. He said: “There will be 25 per cent off everything until our final day of trading, which will be on Monday, January 6.”

Charlie had the idea of opening The Hastings Bookshop in 2020 when he was furloughed from Waterstones during the Covid pandemic. It opened in Trinity Street on November 1, but had to close almost immediately due to a lockdown. But the shop re-opened on April 12, 2021, and became popular in town.

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