On Saturday July 4, The Rye Bookshop officially opens to customers with a special visit from children’s favourite Peter Rabbit (shown above) from the Beatrix Potter books – though it unofficially opened on Friday July 26. Peter Rabbit will be in and out between 11am and 3pm and will be inviting shoppers to browse with a glass of bubbly and a piece of cake. The new shop, at 25 High Street, will restore a bookshop to the town, following the closure of the greatly missed Martello Bookshop last year, in an attractive and prominent Grade II listed building. It is bright and welcoming inside and will offer thousands of titles with approximately one third each of fiction, non-fiction and children’s books as well as other gift items.
Waterstones Managing Director James Daunt said: “The Rye Bookshop is the latest of a number of bookshops to be opened by Waterstones under a name other than Waterstones. We do so where we want to reflect the quintessentially local character of the bookshop. In Rye’s case, the shop is by necessity a lot smaller than a standard Waterstones and will be run as, and have the ethos of, an independent bookshop. The name therefore feels the right one and builds on the great success we have had with the similarly sized Southwold Books opened last year in Suffolk.”
The shop will be managed by Lizzie Lee, who was formerly assistant manager at Waterstones, Hastings and lives in Winchelsea. She says: “We’re incredibly proud to be bringing a bookshop back to the heart of Rye, and have been delighted by the enthusiasm and goodwill we’ve received already from the local community. We can’t wait to open the doors and welcome the people of Rye to their splendid new bookshop.”