Tales on Moon Lane bookshop moving to Whitstable

Twenty years after opening its doors, the Tales on Moon Lane bookshop will move to Whitstable in September 2023, with the Herne Hill shop becoming Moon Lane’s education hub. The original bookstore will cease to trade as a shop for the public from 1st August 2023, and will instead be open by appointment only for teachers and other educational professionals.

Over the past 15 years, Moon Lane Education has come to supply books to schools across the UK and internationally, and now requires more space.

Meanwhile, Moon Lane Books/Moon Lane Ink CIC in Catford will continue to operate as both a general bookshop and the funding source for the group’s community outreach work. All of the Moon Lane community projects that the group runs across the South East will have their administration base here. 

Moon Lane Ink CIC and Moon Lane Books were founded in partnership with Paul and Leah Chin, who continue to run both areas. 

Tales on Moon Lane founder and children’s author Tamara Macfarlane, whose latest book, The Book of Mysteries, Magic, and the Unexplained, is being published by DK in August, is moving the original shop to its new home by the sea. Macfarlane moved to the Kent coast in 2020 to focus on establishing additional Moon Lane children’s bookshops and literary community projects.

The new shop will focus on celebrating Moon Lane’s favourite books, authors and illustrators, along with limited edition artwork, toys and stationery. All other areas of Moon Lane will continue to operate as they are.

A statement from the Moon Lane Group said: “It has been 20 wonderful years since we first opened the doors of the original Tales on Moon Lane bookshop in Herne Hill, London. Over time and on mission, Moon Lane has branched out into many new, multi-award-winning ventures, locations and activities – from our Community Interest Company and Bookshop, Moon Lane Books in Catford, to our first international franchise in the Unesco city of literature, Nanjing.

“We are proud to be working tirelessly to address inequity in the world of children’s books: inequity of access, representation, and roles in the publishing industry, so that every child has access to books that enable them to feel seen, reflected, respected and valued. As winner of the British Children’s Bookseller of the year, on multiple occasions, and the first independent ever to win British Bookseller of the year, we are incredibly proud of everything that the Moon Lane team has achieved.”