✿ Kingsbridge · South Devon · since 1954

An independent bookshop at the head of the estuary.

Two Mill Street, a hundred metres back from the Quay, where the tide turns. Seventy years of books for the South Hams: literary fiction, the South West Coast Path collection, the children\'s room behind the counter, gift wrapping in thick kraft paper with a handwritten note inside.

1954Bookselling on Mill Street
Mon to Sat10:00 to 16:00
100mFrom the Quay
Mon to Sat10:00 to 16:00
Free UK shippingOver £40
Gift wrapThick kraft · handwritten note
The Coast PathA dedicated collection
WHAT\'S ON THE SHELVES · FIVE ROOMS, ONE COUNTER

What you\'ll find inside.

Phone the shop · 01548 857233 →

Five rooms across one floor on Mill Street. Walk-in stock rotates weekly. If you\'re after a specific title, phone the counter on 01548 857233 before you make the trip in from Salcombe or the coast path. We can pull it off the shelf or order it for the next morning.

FICTION

Literary fiction & the long backlist.

The contemporary literary list, the Booker shortlist as it lands, the long European backlist in translation, the South West writers (Daphne du Maurier, Helen Dunmore, Patrick Gale), a small modern classics shelf at adult eye level.

Walk-in stock rotates weekly
CHILDREN\'S & YA

Picture books, chapter books, and the Tonies counter.

Picture books at little-person eye level, the early-reader shelves, the middle-grade adventure list, the YA paperback wall, plus the Tonies counter for the screen-free under-fives. In-store demonstrations on request.

Tonies demos by the counter
THE SOUTH WEST COAST PATH

A dedicated collection for the 630-mile trail.

The National Trail Guides, the SWCP Association section guides, Paddy Dillon\'s Cicerone walking volumes, and the local tide-tables that gate the Bantham and Bigbury low-water crossings. The Kingsbridge stretch starts six miles south at Salcombe.

Maps and tide-tables in stock
DEVON & LOCAL INTEREST

The South Hams shelf, and the literary Kingsbridge.

Rachel Joyce\'s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (set here in 2012). Anthony Trollope\'s Rachel Ray (set here in 1863). Devon history, Salcombe sailing, the estuary birds, the South Hams cookbook list. Locally bound, where we can find it.

Local-author signings each season
NON-FICTION

History, nature writing, and the long memoir shelf.

Modern history and biography, the long nature-writing list the South West does so well (Robert Macfarlane, Adam Nicolson, Helen Macdonald), popular science from the Royal Institution\'s annual list, the cookbook table, the gardening shelf.

Stock turns with the season
GIFT WRAP · FREE WITH ANY BOOK

Thick kraft paper, a handwritten note.

The shop\'s signature service. Any book bought in the shop or sent online comes wrapped in thick, good-quality paper, finished with a real piece of ribbon, with a handwritten note from the bookseller inside if you give us a line of text on the receipt.

Free · mention at the till

Walk-in stock rotates weekly · phone the counter on 01548 857233 if you\'re travelling in for a specific title.

THE SOUTH WEST COAST PATH · 630 MILES · A DEDICATED COLLECTION

A dedicated shelf for the 630-mile trail.

The South West Coast Path runs from Minehead in Somerset, along the north Devon and Cornish coast, around Land\'s End, up through south Cornwall and south Devon, and finishes at South Haven Point in Dorset. The Kingsbridge stretch starts six miles south of the shop, at Salcombe.

We carry the full set of National Trail Guides published by Aurum and Macmillan, the SWCP Association\'s section guides (sold in aid of the Path itself), Paddy Dillon\'s two Cicerone walking volumes, the South West Lakes guides, and the local tide-tables that gate the Bantham and Bigbury low-water crossings.

National Trail Guides
The full section set, Aurum / Macmillan.
SWCP Association
Section guides, sold in support of the Path.
Cicerone
Paddy Dillon\'s two-volume walking set.
Tide tables
Bantham, Bigbury, Salcombe crossings.
SINCE 1954 · AT THE HEAD OF THE ESTUARY

Seventy years of bookselling on Mill Street.

The Harbour Bookshop has traded from Two Mill Street since 1954, seven decades behind a single shopfront, a hundred metres back from the Quay where the Kingsbridge Estuary turns. The shop sits at the head of one of the longest rias in southern England, a six-mile drowned river valley that runs south past Salcombe and out to the open Channel.

Kingsbridge has a quiet literary tradition. Anthony Trollope set his 1863 novel Rachel Ray here. Rachel Joyce set The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry here a hundred and fifty years later, in 2012, when the protagonist begins his six-hundred-mile walk from a Kingsbridge house. The shop sells both, alongside the modern South Hams writers and the long Devon-history shelf.

1954
The Harbour Bookshop opens on Mill Street, Kingsbridge.
1863
Anthony Trollope sets Rachel Ray in Kingsbridge.
2012
Rachel Joyce sets The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry in Kingsbridge.
Today
Five rooms of stock, the South West Coast Path collection, the Book Club, gift wrap on every order.
THE HARBOUR BOOK CLUB · A DEVON-WIDE DISCOUNT

The Harbour Book Club, and a discount for every club in Devon.

One pick a month, chosen by the booksellers and the regulars between them. A short note inside the cover from whoever picked it. Pickup in the shop, or posted free across the UK to club members.

If you belong to a book club anywhere in Devon, the discount runs across the year on whatever your group reads. Bring the club\'s name to the till, or sign up below and we\'ll add the discount to your account.

This month

The bookseller\'s pick, chosen this week.

A new fiction title from the May list. We\'ll post the choice ahead of the first Saturday and write a paragraph on why it. The archive strip below holds the past picks.

From the archive
  • Brightly Shining Ingvild Rishøi · Atlantic Books
  • Doppelganger Naomi Klein · Penguin
  • Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow Gabrielle Zevin · Vintage
  • The Marriage Portrait Maggie O'Farrell · Tinder Press

Join the Harbour Book Club.

We\'ll add you to the monthly list, post the pick first Saturday of the month, and discount your club\'s book whenever you read along.

GIFT WRAP · FREE WITH ANY BOOK

Wrapped in thick kraft paper, with a real piece of ribbon.

Every book bought in the shop or sent online comes wrapped, free, in thick good-quality kraft paper, finished with a real piece of ribbon. If you give us a line of text at the till or in the notes field at checkout, a bookseller writes it on the card inside, in pen.

The wrap is part of the shop. We do it for the birthday delivery and the going-away present and the Christmas hardback equally. There is no premium tier, no extra charge, no afterthought.

Or come pick the book and the ribbon in the shop →
David Grann's The Wager hardback styled on a vintage sage-green rotary telephone with white alstroemeria flowers, on display inside the Harbour Bookshop
VISIT · 2 MILL STREET, KINGSBRIDGE

Two Mill Street, a hundred metres from the Quay.

We sit at the head of the estuary on the spine of the old market town. The Quay car park, the bus station and the Saturday market on The Shambles are all within a five-minute walk. The South West Coast Path begins six miles south at Salcombe.

Address
2 Mill Street, Kingsbridge, Devon TQ7 1ED
Phone
01548 857233
Email
hello@harbourbookshop.co.uk
Hours
Monday to Saturday, 10:00 to 16:00 · Sunday closed
Parking
Quay car park · 100m. Tide-permitting moorings at the Quay for visitors arriving by boat.
By bus
Kingsbridge bus station, 2 minutes on foot.
Shipping
Free UK delivery over £40. Worldwide on request.
FAQ

Five questions the counter answers most.

For anything not here, phone the shop on 01548 857233 or write to hello@harbourbookshop.co.uk. The booksellers are at the till during shop hours.

How does the Book Club discount work? +

Two ways. One, bring the name of your book club to the till and we apply a year-round discount on whatever the group is reading. Two, sign up for the Harbour Book Club using the form on this page and we add the discount to your account. The monthly pick goes out first Saturday of the month, free UK postage included.

Can I order online and pick up in the shop? +

Yes. Choose "in-person pickup" in the cart and we'll set the book aside at the till for you. We hold the book for ten days from the email notification. No collection fee, no minimum order. Pickup hours follow the shop hours, Monday to Saturday 10:00 to 16:00.

Do you stock Tonies, and can the children try them in store? +

Yes. The Tonies counter is by the children's room. We keep the Toniebox demonstration unit live during shop hours so the under-fives can listen to a sample before you buy. We carry the screen-free starter sets and the long character list, with stock notes on which figures we have in.

Will you gift-wrap a book I post to someone else? +

Yes. Add a note at checkout with the line of text you'd like inside the card and a bookseller writes it in pen before the wrap goes on. Thick kraft paper, real ribbon, handwritten note inside. There is no premium tier and no extra charge, gift wrap is part of the shop.

Are you open Sundays, or for the August bank holiday? +

The shop trades Monday to Saturday, 10:00 to 16:00. Sundays we are closed in the usual run of the year. For bank holiday weekends and Christmas opening we post the dates on the homepage two weeks in advance. Please phone the shop on 01548 857233 if you're travelling in from out of town.