ABOUT THE BOOK SHOP
A Fixture on the Lee-on-the-Solent High Street for over 90 years, The Book Shop is the oldest shop in Lee on the solent and one of the oldest surviving independent booksellers on the South Coast.
In 1933, Leonard Miles opened a florist’s shop at 142 High Street with a small lending library, which later that year evolved into a bookshop. He then went on to open a second in Stubbington and a third book in Gosport High Street known as Miles’ Book shop and later known as the Gosport Book Shop. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Lee Bookshop was owned by Thomas Clague “bookseller and stationer”. In recent decades Mr. & Mrs. Pollard, Mr. & Mrs. Adams, Tony & Jean Wilson, and Charlie & Maureen Excell have been proprietors.
In 2004 Rick Barter took over the book shop and transformed it into the essential shop it is today with Jan Watkins and Tim Seward. Originally from New York, Rick owned the shop for 14 years and made it into the book shop we all know and love today and became a founder member of the Hive network .When Rick sadly decided to sell and move back to London he was insistent The Book Shop continue as a book shop and so rather than closing when the lease ended in 2016, he held off for someone to continue in the same vein.
Sarah Veal opened the doors to The Book Shop on 31st October 2018.
Keeping the original staff of Jan, Tim, Matt, Kieran and with the support of Scott, Sarah’s fiancé, she expanded the children’s section and began organising regular events. These included school holiday activities, book signings and meet the Author opportunities. There has been storytelling at schools as well as Harry Potter Book Night, World Book Day, Dinosaur Day, Isadora Moon day, an evening with Natasha Lee – Sister of missing Katrice Lee and a Champagne Celebration of Women.
The shop is part of Gosport Heritage Open Days in conjunction with the Gosport Tourist Office and the National Trust, organising annual events in the shop.
The Book shop is actively involved with Beach Clean Girl to keep our beach clean, with sponsorship, window displays and social media to raise awareness within the community.
Charities are well supported, and they take in used postage stamps for the RNIB, plastic milk bottle tops for recycling with LUSH cosmetics and used printer cartridges for ICANGO. Amongst other important charities, they are avid supporters of the Brain Tumour Charity, Marie Curie, Missing People and Sophie’s Arc.
There are online Book Clubs for adults and children, as well as a Book review groups, where readers can complete a book review on a new book that is to be published or a book they have read.
They have the license to watch films and have a book club that involves reading the book and comparing it with the film (currently postponed due to COVID)
Schools are very important, and they supply many local schools with books for their libraries, World Book Day and for author signings, as well as providing pop-up book shops, stationery, book tokens and exclusive Book Fairs. They have a dedicated School online shop for schools to add their wish lists and share with parents who then purchase for the school library.
They like to participate in community fetes and are a large supporter of local raffles for local businesses, the church, and schools.
The Book Shop takes orders for books over the phone and online for new and for very old books. So, if you can’t find it yourself, try them, they love a challenge!
Jessica (Sarah’s niece) joined the team in late 2019, and Kieran left for Sainsbury’s.
In February 2020 they won Caboodle’s (National Book Tokens) book shop of the month.
In March 2020 they were shortlisted for Independent Bookshop of the year at the British Book Awards; the BAFTA’s of the literary world ….and won the Region!
In May 2020 the shop would have been hosting Lee-on-the-Solent’s first Children’s Book Festival, a literary event set over 2 days with children’s authors, Kids First Aid, Lee Hub, creative writing workshops, story time and much more. This has now been postponed to 2022.
During all three lockdowns the staff were furloughed, and Sarah continued to trade behind closed doors, with online, phone and Facebook orders, to provide anything the customer required – even milk, bread and prescriptions!
But in February 2020, it was the launch of Positivity Boxes that were a game changer!
Containing a book, a hot chocolate, a chocolate bar, a bookmark and a card from the sender, customers were able to send a little bit of Positivity to the ones they love without leaving home. They were sent all over the UK and even Seattle, Australia, Norway and Sweden!
The boxes were extremely popular, which meant that, thankfully, on the 14th of June, the shop was able to reopen.
To adapt to restrictions they moved the popular activity tables outside and ‘Bubbles’ was launched. The tables could be enjoyed by customers in their safe bubble and everything that had been used, was removed for sanitising and the table replenished with new activities for the next family bubble.
The online shop was launched in Nov 2021 under the umbrella of UK.Bookshop.Org designed to give Amazon a run for its money. Discounted books delivered to your door with the shop getting the commission as if you had purchased it in store.
Shania joined the team in October 2020 just before Lockdown 3.0 hit in Dec 2020 and for 4 months the shop struggled. It was extremely quiet and if it wasn’t for large book orders from Alver Valley School (who restocked their library – thankyou Donna Tatem and Jacqui Hyde) and the loyalty of a handful of customers (you know who you are) the shop would now be closed.
January 2021 saw the launch of the book subscription ‘Positivity Post’ and a new Positivity book club for subscribers.
In March, when the British Book Awards were announced, the shop became a finalist, for the Southeast region for Indie Bookshop of the Year and amazingly a UK finalist for Children’s Bookshop of the Year!
During the lockdowns Sarah became very aware of people in the local community that were alone and vulnerable and so in March the Mental Health Project was launched. A project where customers can donate a positivity box to someone in need. As a result of its success The Book Shop now works with local care homes, schools and hospitals delivering donated Positivity Boxes. These boxes also contained the details of the donator (with permission) to open badly needed communication in the form of letters… kind of like a confidential pen pal service.
2021 was a busy year for events. On Harry Potter Book Night the Book Shop wanted to do something very special for the children after a tough 2 years, and enlisted the help of several local businesses. The Book Shop transformed the High Street into Diagon Alley. The children split into House teams and played a game in every shop rotating and earning points to win the house cup.
Summer in Lee saw them dress as the cast of The Wizard of Oz and they gave away over 700 free books to children in the local community. Lee Victory Festival saw them dress as Land girls, a chance to champion the history of World War 2 and for the Victorian Christmas in Lee they dressed as Suffragists educating and organising activities. This is without all the book signings and school holiday activities they had that year.
In Feb 2022 Sarah had no choice but to try and raise the cash to purchase the shop premises … but when all the figures were in, she had a shortfall of £30k. A Gofundme page was setup and incredibly, donations from customers, publishers and authors reached the target in 6 weeks allowing Sarah to start proceedings and go ahead with the purchase.
In March 2022 they were once again shortlisted and a regional finalist for Independent bookshop of the year. It was another busy year for events and In May the purchase completed giving the shop a fighting chance of survival just as the cost-of-living-crisis hit.
In September 2022 Sarah’s son Josh joined the Saturday Team.
March 2023 saw the shop once again making the regional final of the British Book Awards for Independent Bookshop of the Year. It was also the month we said goodbye to Shania and welcomed Sarah’s daughter Jazmine to the team as Manager. Jazz has attended the Booksellers Conference that cemented her love and passion for books in a whole new way. The shop began work with Royal Haslar to curate a residents library in Canada House, Sarah also took part in a documentary talking about Haslar Hospital and the local community, which can be viewed on You-tube.
2024 was a struggle once again for the shop as a rise in basic expenses grew incredibly high, but the team fought hard with new ideas and campaigns to keep the shop at the forefront of peoples minds. The local community were fantastic in their support. The shop also won Retail business of the year ay the Gosport Business Awards! Phase 2 of the residents library in Canada House saw the library extended and an author visit.
2025 the shop made the Regional Final of the British Book Awards and also a finalist at a local Business Awards where all the businesses were run by women. Sarah was nominated as Citizen of the Year and was invited for afternoon tea at the Mayors Parlour to collect a certificate. The shop began selling second-hand books and continued its on going work with Royal Haslar, providing books for the main library and setting up the Royal Haslar Book Club.
Thankfully the doors are staying open, and the shop is continuing with some great events planned, all of which can be found on the Events Page..
FACT: Did you know we hide books all over Lee-on-the-Solent waiting for a reader to find? Once found they are read and hidden for the next reader to find.
Local History
Before Lee-on-the-Solent came into being, the area was called Ly, Le Breton, or Lee Brittain. Indeed, the oldest building in Lee-on-the-Solent is called Le Breton Farm, and dates from the fourteenth century. Although it is now a private home, further along the ancient track leading north from the coast (now Pier Street and Manor Way) is another ancient farm house, now a pub called The Bun Penny, named after a well known coin of 1860-1894 depicting the head of Queen Victoria.
Lee-on-the-Solent, as a town, was really the vision of one man, Charles Edmund Newton Robinson, who persuaded his father (Sir John Charles Robinson, director of the Victoria & Albert Museum) to create a limited company to buy up largely unused land for the development of a resort, in 1884. The Marine Parade was constructed first, followed by the construction (1885-1888) of a 750ft long Pier, with regular steamer service to Southsea. The (still standing) terrace of shops and balconied apartments on the east side of Pier Street was part of that development. In 1894, a railway connection was built, the terminus of which still stands, now used as an amusement arcade. (Rail service was discontinued in the 1930s.)
The 1930s were a decade of great change for Lee-on-the-Solent, as evidenced by the Art Deco block of flats and shops still standing on the Marine Parade and the row of Art Deco houses on Milvil Road, one of which has been charmingly restored as a stylish B&B. 1935 saw the construction of the Lee Tower complex, a local and regional landmark with a cinema, a ballroom, a restaurant, lounge, and saloon bar – all topped by a striking white tower and clock, with a 120 ft high observation deck, described by Nikolas Pevsner’s architectural guide to Hampshire as “a good piece of second-rate inter-war modernism of the slightly jazzy sort, constructed of concrete when concrete seemed very up-to-date”.
He described the white tower as looking “rather like an elongated cigarette lighter”. The tower complex was commandeered by the military during WWII. An attempt to revive its sagging fortunes was made in 1964, when the interior was reconfigured (the cinema was turned into a bowling alley). In 1971, the decision was made to demolish the complex. The Pier, too, had a long period of decline. In 1932 a fire destroyed the popular pavilion at the far end of the pier, which was never rebuilt. In 1939, like so many other British piers, it was “breached” by the military in the interest of coastal defence. At war’s end, alas, the damage was never repaired and the remaining pier structure was demolished in 1958.
Recent developments in Lee-on-the-Solent have seen the withering of the remaining tourist infrastructure (the last of the large hotels has now closed), although there are still many fine Guest Houses and B&Bs, the construction of many retirement flats and, more recently, the development of hundreds of new family homes in the Cherque Farm area of east Lee and Daedalus, it is back on the map. Lee-on-the-Solent continues to attract hundreds of visitors drawn by the pleasant High Street, seaside location, and leisure opportunities. With the new Splash Park and Skate park & play area as well as many fine cafe’s and over 70 independent businesses, along with the huge VE Day celebrations that were planned before COVID hit, Lee-on-the-Solent is fast becoming the popular seaside resort it was meant to be.