It is a quaint space which feels homely and welcoming, with piles of books everywhere – it feels as though you could lose yourself for hours amongst the sea of words. Crofton Books in Brockley has been serving the local community since 2021.
The owner, Jason Shelley, 54, is quiet and thoughtful and his bookshop, which sells both new and secondhand books, matches his demeanour. He wants his shop to be a space where everyone feels welcome: “We have this philosophy where it’s a bookshop for everyone, it’s kind of class free. If you are unfamiliar with bookshops you can come and explore it.”
As well as having worked in bookshops around London, Shelley is also a published author who writes both prose and fiction, some of his titles being ‘No Looking Back’ which is a selection of poetry and ‘Grey Love’ which is an urban love story of a struggling writer living in the city. Although he never imagined he would set up his own bookshop, Crofton Books is well established and loved by the community.
He sees the shop as a space for the local community of Brockley to get away from the digitalisation of the modern world: “I think in today’s really ultra-capitalist environment, any bookshop is a very good community hub because it’s a place for people to go where there’s not a pressure of spending lots of money.”
“People can come here with friends and spend time looking around. It’s a nice juxtaposition to people’s online work or looking at phones. People can come here and just look at tangible objects, they can get ideas for other things in their life.”
Crofton Books holds regular events such as book clubs and an upcoming poetry open mic night where people from the local community can come and share their creative works. The book clubs have proved very popular, with the latest one having sold out in 4 hours.
A new Waterstones opened in Lewisham Shopping Centre this week, but Shelley isn’t concerned: “I think the fact that Waterstones is opening in Lewisham is more a reflection of how the area has developed, and even though I’m not necessarily agreeing with Waterstones because it’s owned by a hedge fund company, I do think that people can benefit from Waterstones. And even independent businesses can benefit from it because it inspires people to buy books.”
Shelley said: “The more bookshops there are, the better for the area.” Lewisham has a handful of independent bookshops which have served the local community for years: as well as Crofton Books there is also Halcyon Books on Lee High Road, Moon Lane Books near Catford and Kirkdale Bookshop in Sydenham.
Shelley said: “Bookshops tend to be very localised, particularly independent ones, and people in the area stay very loyal to their local bookshop.” “I think I’d be worried if we were selling new books here, what we provide is quite a different business plan, we celebrate older books. Waterstones is more populist and we sell rare books so people can come to us for them.”
If you would like to learn more about Crofton Books, a short film has been made called ‘The Bookshop’ which was a runner up in The National Film Awards. Shelley said: “It’s a visual celebration (of the bookshop).” The film was made by Elena and Grace, Year 9 students at Prendergast School in Hilly Fields, Brockley as part of an international filmmaking project sponsored by the BFI and the Cinema cent ans de jeunesse (CCAJ) based in Paris.
