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George Bayntun - Bath

George BayntunGeorge Bayntun, one of the world’s most famous bookshops and home to the Bayntun-Riviere bindery, which dates back to 1829. The bookshop specialises in fine bindings, both old and new, first and illustrated editions, with an emphasis on English literature, and familiar and unusual books, all in the best possible condition. In the bindery eleven craftsmen and women bind and restore books for stock and for customers all over the world.

George Bayntun is located in an imposing listed building less than 50 yards from Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s train station in the centre of Bath. It features in the latest Pevsner Architectural Guide to Bath, written by Michael Forsyth: "Bayntun’s Bookshop and Bindery by F. W. Gardiner, 1901, originally the Post Office sorting office, and externally unaltered. It has big, arched ground-floor openings, first-floor mullioned and transformed windows, four gables and nice rainwater hoppers and original pairs of gates and railings - a bold and convinced statement, conceding nothing to the Georgian tradition. Mowbray Green & Hollier converted it in 1938".

Little inside the shop has changed since 1938, at which time most of the furniture was already antique, and the binders still work at the benches originally used to sort the mail. Visitors are invited to browse through our stock of many thousands of books and prints, spread over three floors. Some are catalogued and listed online, whilst many more can only be found by searching our shelves.

George Bayntun
Manvers Street
Bath
Somerset BA1 1JW

Tel: 01225 466000
Website: George Bayntun

Opening hours: Mon-Fri 9.00-1.00 & 2.00-5.30; Sat 9.30-1.00.

 

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Without books the development of civilization would have been impossible. They are the engines of change, windows on the world, 'Lighthouses' as the poet said 'erected in the sea of time.' They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print.

Arthur Schopenhauer