A renowned book dealer, Clarke’s Bookshop, has been given a new lease on life though its future in a hostile world remains uncertain, writes Brent Meermann.
Established in 1956, over a decade before I was born, it must be the oldest independent bookshop in the country (and in fact one of only a handful left dating that far back in the whole Anglophone world).
I have been browsing and buying books there since the age of 12, when I first received pocket money. To this day, Clarke’s has a R10-a-book section so almost anyone can afford to buy a book.Literary canon
In the 1970s and 1980s, Long Street was our Charing Cross Road. From those second-hand stores I built up a respectable library of the literary canon and the best part of my university setworks. But one by one the independents have shut – the rather snooty Cranford’s, and a few whose names I no longer remember; and now Tommy’s has been halved in size and mostly sells curios.
Recently, Clarke’s had to undergo its own resurrection. Proprietor Henrietta Dax, who worked with Clarke and took over the business when he died in 1981, describes it as a “miracle”. When the lease on 211 Long Street was not to be renewed, Dax managed to get a three-year stay of execution while she frantically searched for premises.
Incredibly, two years later she secured a corner at 199 Long Street, close enough to carry by hand – a labour of love – the vast stock of books to the new shop, all without missing an hour of trading.
Although 199 may not have the history yet, with its wooden floors, identical gold lettering on the window, the original bookcases, the walls painted exactly the same practical grey and an elegant wooden staircase Dax built into the front room, it is beautifully in keeping with the old place, and in some ways an improvement. The rooms are airier and have better light; the office under the stairs doesn’t seem nearly as cramped. Clarke’s has not only been resurrected it has also been revitalised.
Clarke’s Bookshop, 199 Long Street, Cape Town. Phone 0214235739. Website
Full story by Brent Meersmann via Mail & Guardian.
