After months of renovations and planning, Topping & Company finally opened its doors to the public on the 5th of June. It is located at 1 Museum Street and spans three floors, hosting a vast array of books from any genre you can think of.
The first Topping & Company bookshop was opened in 2002 in Ely, and since then has spread throughout the country to Bath, Edinburgh, St Andrews and now, York- this branch being the largest yet. Housed in a stunning 19th Century building, the shop preserves a large amount of the inner rooms, using them to split up different genres while still maintaining an overall cohesiveness to the space.
The bookshop offers additional services as well as being a conventional booksellers’, as they sell rare and collectible books, have a subscription service that showcases new publications, and provide literary consultations called ‘Coffee with a Bookseller’ which allows customers to speak to expert booksellers and receive recommendations tailored to their specific interests and reading capacity.
Topping & Company transcends conventional bookselling as they provide a personal and comfortable shopping experience. Despite its size, the shop is cosy and welcoming, and it is easy to peruse the shelves for hours, due to the abundance of carefully selected books. Topping & Company are also hosting many book events, with authors such as Alice Osman, R.F Kuang and Ian Rankin scheduled to visit.
Though it may seem like York already has many interesting and cosy bookshops, Topping & Company not only provides a welcoming and cosy atmosphere, but also, through hosting events with important contemporary authors, the shop connects York to a wider literary world. Topping & Company is an essential visit on any bookshop-crawl.