Pop-up micro-bookshop opens

Bristol’s newest bookshop is also its smallest, specialising in independent publishers, literature in translation and literary crime fiction.

Goatshed Books is a pop-up shop from Monday to Saturday within Future Leap on Gloucester Road.

The micro-bookshop has been opened by married couple Jack Jenkins and Heather Marks, who have both selected the books on the shop’s shelves.

Jack is also the co-founder of Goatshed Press, a publishing house that recently published its first literary magazine, which helped inspire the birth of the bookshop.

When not recommending books to customers, Jack plans to work on Goatshed’s publishing arm at his desk in one corner of the bookshop which will be here in Future Leap (where Bristol24/7 is also based) for at least six months.

Goatshed Books is a pop-up in Future Leap on Gloucester Road – photo: Martin Booth

Jack, who grew up near Gloucester Road, has been looking for a pop-up space for a while, scouting out potential locations before meeting Future Leap manager Deepika Kesar.

“As soon as I walked in here, I knew that it would fit alongisde everything really well,” Jack said in a recent afternoon in the shop.

“I have wanted to open a bookshop for ages but I hadn’t really found the way in, what was going to make it specific and different.

“Then making the magazine, discovering more indie publishers to inspire me, that really helped kick off more people having interest, and realsing that drawing that together with all the indie publishers I love. That’s kind of where it’s come from.”

“Primarily, we wanted to platform other indies and to put them alongside each other.”

A selection of the shelves at Goatshed Books – photo: Martin Booth

The first publisher of the month is Galley Beggar Press from Norwich, an independent publisher “committed to publishing daring, innovative fiction and narrative non-fiction”.

Jack and Heather will be getting guests to regularly curate themes based on their interests, with each theme on a shelf or a table in the shop.

They are also setting up an online bookshop with more titles than in the physical bookshop, with a delivery cost of 99p for Bristol residents.

Goatshed Books’ first publisher of the month is Galley Beggar Press from Norwich – photo: Martin Booth

Jack added: “I guess I wanted to do stuff that is experimental and not super commercial, but also stuff that avoids being overly intellectual as well.

“I don’t like how sometimes literary communities can become slightly inaccessible to lots of people. I’m looking for books that anyone can pick up and enjoy.”

“Among the other bookshops in Bristol, everyone is doing slightly different things. There is always going to be some overlap but having lots of translated fiction and a lot of indie presses, that’s one of our focuses which is a bit different.

“And we also have a tiny but hopefully growing publishing house that we’re going to be getting some new titles out, that hopefully gives it a unique feel as well. It makes it a bit of a writing community as well as a place to sell books.

“The flipside to the publishing is that having the bookshop, you get to speak to customers. It completes a bit of a circle.”

Goatshed Books is the physical embodiment of Goatshed Press – photo: Martin Booth

Main photo: Martin Booth

Read next:

• South Bristol bookshop named best in the South West
• Bristol’s bookshop bonanza
• My Bristol Favourites: Deepika Kesar
• Sector Spotlight: Co-working spaces

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