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London bookshops reveal falling pupil numbers partly triggering 'toughest' times yet
Some independent bookshops in London have shared concerns over falling pupil numbers, with some facing their “toughest” year so far.
Families moving out of the capital after lockdown and general cost-of-living pressures have exacerbated the situation as well as the falling birthrate causing school closures, particularly in certain areas of London. This has reportedly affected footfall, events and the capacity of schools to buy in library stock.
The award-winning Moon Lane Inc bookshop in Forest Hill, Lewisham, revealed concerns over the store’s survival. “The last year has been the toughest for the business so far – the after-effects of Covid-19 and the cost of living crisis, rather than dissipating, seem to have become more acute,” manager Jasmine Dellimore told The Bookseller. “It is fairly well documented that after Covid-19, many families left London in pursuit of a change of pace. This has caused reduced pupil numbers in London schools, which is obviously a significant challenge for a children’s bookshop.”
Lockdown has cast a shadow which the shop – named Children’s Bookseller of the Year in 2020 – is struggling to recover from. “The revenue stream of the rooms above the shop disappeared during Covid-19, and it took some time to restart that aspect of the business,” Dellimore said, who also cited Amazon’s cost-cutting as a factor.
Dellimore today tries to engage with the local community as much as possible. “We have recently begun renting these rooms out again, and also use that space for school storytimes, local craft fairs and alike. In the past few years we have also offered a regular free baby and toddler Friday storytime, and continue to be responsive to the needs of local groups and schools to ensure we are an active part of the local community. We now offer subscriptions to our customers as a helpful gift option, but one which creates a more direct connection between our booksellers and customers as we offer recommendations from which the subscriber can select their book each month.”
Dellimore is also targeting the shop at adults more than before to combat the diminishing pupil numbers. “We have always had a room of books for adults too, but have in recent years sought to promote this aspect of our business more as it represents an important offering from us, and one which expands our potential audience beyond children and their carers.”
She added: “We have such a fantastic customer base, and are so appreciative of the incredible support we have received from the community. It is really just a case of asking that our customers shop with us whenever they are able – it is the only surefire way to ensure the survival of Moon Lane Books.”
Urmi Merchant, director of Pickled Pepper Books in North London’s Crouch End, said: “We are having to be more creative than ever to both sell books and our events. One of our local schools has decreased from three form to two-form entry and there has been a mass movement of families out of London post the lockdown. This not only impacts footfall but local schools capacity to buy books with smaller budgets.”
Vivian Archer, owner of the Newham Bookshop in east London, described a mixed picture. “There are falling numbers, but we’ve had more orders from schools who haven’t used us. There’s one school who always orders one copy of one book for 800 members of the whole school, and they’ve narrowed that to 650... So that says something.”
Archer believes that the politics of X and the return of Donald Trump to the US presidency is driving many customers back to independent shops. However, she concedes that last month was difficult in general: “There is less money. January generally in all the shops was awful.”
Cathy Slater, owner of Dulwich Books in south London, told The Bookseller: “We have observed that there are perhaps fewer children in the 10-17 age group coming into the shop, but we sell a lot of children’s books for younger readers - these are bought by parents/adults. We continue to supply books to local schools and are involved in successful school author events, especially around World Book Day, which is itself a great boost for bookshops.”
Some other shops have noticed changes in nearby schools without footfall being affected. Jess Allan, store manager of Queens Park Books in north west London, said: "We have historically done more events with schools and just in general and that has certainly changed post lockdown. We see a lot of kids in our Queen’s Park shop, so the numbers haven’t dwindled for us there.”
Several other shops which The Bookseller contacted reported no visible difference in nearby school pupil numbers though, in general, statistics suggest times have been more tough recently for bookshops. The Booksellers Association (BA) warned of "harsher winds to come" for UK bookshops, after recorded footfall in 2024 was down 2.2% year-on-year.
Additionally the number of independent bookshops in the UK fell last year, from 1,063 to 1,052, continuing the previous year’s downward trend – although the store number is still well above the 2016 low of 867 and the trade performed better than the wider retail sector.
In regards to children’s titles, the cost of living has led to 20% of families cutting back on books, a report in 2023 showed, while the National Literacy Trust has warned about a "literacy crisis" among industry-wide concerns over young people’s reading for pleasure.
