Rosamund de la Hey left a marketing directorship at Bloomsbury and her husband Bill, a portrait photographer, retrained as a cook, and together in 2008 they turned a derelict auction house in St Boswells into the kind of rural bookshop that changes what a village thinks it can support: books at the front, a café that draws the whole Borders, and a deli-and-home barn added in 2012 behind. The Telegraph named it Britain's Best Small Shop in 2018, with a British Book Awards Independent Bookshop of the Year title already on the wall — decorations for a shop that functions as the region's front room. The brief that reached this guide had the owners' name wrong; the shop, unmistakably, is the de la Heys'.
- Address
- Main Street, St Boswells, Melrose TD6 0AT
- Website
- www.mainstreetbooks.co.uk
- Phone
- 01835 824087
Nearby on Nearabouts
View on full map →- Dryburgh Arms
- Clint Lodge
- Bowden House B&B
- Border Berries
- The Ship Inn Melrose
- MacVicars of Melrose
- Trimontium Museum
- The Crafters
More in The Scottish Borders
Independently owned and operated — how this listing was verified
Own Mainstreet Trading Company?
Claim your free listing to update your details and connect with visitors.
Claim this listing