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Round Library

About Bookshop Crawl UK CIC

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Bookshop Crawl UK originally began in 2016, when founder Bex Hughes asked (then) Twitter who wanted to explore bookshops in London with her. In February 2025, just ahead of the 10th London Bookshop Crawl, we registered as a Community Interest Company (CIC), with a directorial board of Bex Hughes (executive director), Rhys Hughes (director) and Charlie Russell (director), and associate assistance from Esther Ushe, who has provided all of our amazing logos, posters and lots more as our freelance graphic designer since 2017. 

 

Becoming a CIC means that we are now a non-profit organisation existing entirely to create amazing events to celebrate and support bookshops and connect book lovers with each other.

 

Our events are designed to be easy and fun for introverts, neurodiverse people and anyone else who may struggle in social situations for whatever reason, as Bex herself is neurodiverse and has social anxiety, and her aim from the beginning has been to create an events space which feels safe & welcoming for everyone!

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As part of our 10th year celebrations, we launched Canterbury Children's Literature Festival which is also part of the CIC, and where our aims are to create access to literacy and stories through bringing authors, illustrators, storytellers, actors and stories in all their forms to the families, schools and children of Kent. ​​

Bookshop Crawl all over the world (well, the UK...)

The London Bookshop Crawl is now an annual weekend of amazing Self Guided and Group Bookshop Crawls, quizzes, book swaps and more which takes place each February, but ever since that first year, we've always wanted to bookshop crawl everywhere there are bookshops! Originally, we ran one roaming bookshop crawl a year in addition to London, but since 2024 we run at least one bookshop crawl per month in different locations from February - October and collaborate with various literary festivals around the UK to bring our events to their programmes.

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Currently we have run in person bookshop crawls (where we have both Self Guided Kits and Group Bookshop Crawls available) in:

  • Bath

  • Brighton & Hove

  • Bristol

  • Cambridge

  • Canterbury

  • Cardiff

  • Cheltenham

  • Edinburgh

  • Hay on Wye

  • London (all over the city for our annual event, as well as Mystery events for Indie Bookshop Week 2024 & 25, Bloomsbury Bookshop Crawls for Bloomsbury Festival Oct 2023 & 24 & our Friends event in Richmond & Kew 2024)

  • Oxford

  • Norwich

  • Whitstable & Herne Bay

  • Winchester

  • York

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And we have run socially distanced events (Self Guided Kits only) in 2021 & 2022 in:​

  • Belfast

  • Birmingham

  • Falmouth

  • Leeds

  • Leicester

  • Liverpool

  • Newcastle

  • Sheffield

  • Stratford upon Avon

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Locations for bookshop crawls are chosen by you, our wonderful bookshop crawl community. We have a poll where you can vote for 2026's locations here.

Our Other Events

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Want a bookshop crawl at your festival? Email bookshopcrawluk@gmail.com to discuss

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