EDINBURGH’s oldest bookshop has been closed since flooding destroyed stock and damaged the store’s electrics.
The flash floods on 19 August saw rainwater cascade down some of Edinburgh’s busiest streets in the afternoon, including South Bridge, home of Blackwell’s bookstore.
The floods made their way into the shop, destroying stock and knocking out some of the store’s electrical systems.
The store now requires “extensive work” to fix the persistent power outage and go back online.
In a statement on Friday, the shop said: “Due to a power outage requiring extensive work to fix, Blackwell’s Edinburgh is still closed.
“Updates will be posted to our social media as & when we have them, but for now we are sadly still without power and unable to open.
“All orders & reservations have been extended & you will still be able to collect them once we are able to reopen.”
The shop has now been closed for more than a week while electricians have worked to repair the damage.
The store is understood to have limited access to emails, and cannot take any calls at the moment.
Any orders or reservations placed with the store are being extended until 7 September, but all books stocked are available on the Blackwell’s website.
The Blackwell’s site first opened as a bookstore in 1848, and later evolved into the home of renowned academic booksellers James Thin.
While the store was purchased by Blackwell’s in 2002 — itself acquired by Waterstones in 2022 — the shop is still referred to as James Thin by some Edinburgh University alumni.
