‘Community bookshop’ in Dalston hopes to boost local publishers

Bookish: Jason Burley and Sam Fisher in the new shop. Photograph: Burley Fisher Books

A new independent bookshop has opened on Kingsland Road, Dalston, aiming to cater to local readers as well as boost Hackney’s small publishers and authors.

A launch event for Burley Fisher Books on Friday 12 February was attended by Meg Hillier MP and Sade Etti, speaker of Hackney Council, along with book lovers and new shoppers.

The shop, run by the same by the people behind Camden Lock Books, has a café and stocks a range of fiction, poetry, non-fiction and children’s books, specialising in new writers and small publishing houses.

It will also host regular events with authors such as feminist poet Sophie Mayer and Hackney resident Iain Sinclair, who has agreed to read from his new paperback.

Burley Fisher Books is run by Jason Burley, who has sold books for 30 years, starting out in Camden Lock Market, and Sam Fisher, who worked with Jason at Camden Lock Books in Old Street Station, which opened in 2007.

After fearing that a Transport for London redevelopment of the Old Street shop could force them to move, the pair looked for an alternative home.

But they fortunately secured a new long-term lease in Old Street and were able to open the new shop in Kingsland Road as well.

Sam Fisher, who has a background in publishing, said the new shop would carry books from Hackney presses such as Flying Eye, a Shoreditch-based children’s book publisher.

“We’re going to try and do that as much as possible,” Mr Fisher said. “Working with local small presses will be a way to provide space for innovative publishing to have a platform.”

The shop will also carry books from other small publishers like Pushkin Press and Fitzcarraldo Editions, which runs The White Review magazine.

“We want to be a full service bookshop and try and be a community bookshop too,” Mr Fisher added.

For more information, follow Burley Fisher Books on Twitter @burleyfisher