New Edition Bookshop – Fremantle, Western Australia

New Edition has had a long history in Fremantle, Perth’s port city. Initially established in a small shop on the main cappuccino strip of downtown Fremantle, it moved about five years ago into an old bank building on High St. This building makes New Edition an attractive place to shop for books. With a classical looking façade sporting what are possibly Greek Ionic columns and a spectacular entrance, the building oozes character. 

It’s a huge shop and one of the great things about visiting New Edition are the comfortable chairs and tables set up for browsing your potential purchases. I love the layout, with the ceiling high wooden shelves and the lamps and sculptures. Overall it’s decked out very tastefully with rugs and posters and due to the character of the old bank interior you really don’t want to leave in a hurry. If you go to the very back of the huge space you’ll see the former bank vaults with the original doors intact. 

One of New Edition’s specialties is a wide range of reference books covering architecture, cooking, design, art, theatre, music and photography, amongst other subjects. Their stock is beautiful, varied and full of hard to get editions. The fiction section has everything you need coupled with all the books you didn’t know you needed. I find it interesting that they mix the science fiction in with the literature – no literature/genre distinctions here. Make sure you have plenty of money if you visit, as it is extremely hard to resist buying just one book. 

New Edition is a high-end boutique bookshop and well worth visiting when you are in Fremantle. They have recently established a tiny coffee shop at the front of the store so that you can boost your capacity to take it all in with tea or coffee; or you can just sit out on their front verandah. Another great thing is that just down the street the Bill Campbell Book Store awaits to fulfill your second-hand book needs. Give them both a visit and help keep bookshops alive – they are not simply just businesses, but are also important cultural hubs in our community.

Bill Campbell Book Shop – Fremantle

I remember the first time I stumbled across this secondhand bookstore. Not being a resident of Perth’s port city – Fremantle, I didn’t really know that it existed. Situated down an old street in Fremantle that still retains all the old buildings from the port’s early history, the shop exudes the ample charm of the past.

The shop front provides a clear view inside, allowing you to see books lined up on their wooden shelves, in particular a whole section of vintage Penguins. Old packing cases full of books sit on either side of the front door, offering specials. The shop itself is very well set up, with glass cabinets containing rare and valuable books and clearly labeled sections for genres like science fiction, crime, literature and non-fiction of all kinds.

The literature section contains some top quality authors, which is complemented by the vintage Penguin section in the same area. If you are seriously into literature then this is the place to come. Being Fremantle there is a great maritime and local history section. The shop also offers a superb philosophy section for those who are looking for existential guidance (that’s me by the way). Children and parents don’t miss out either, with a great section of quality kids and YA books.

The shop offers some specialist areas, with a collection of first editions that are stored upstairs and can be viewed on request. For those with a fetish for a book with a particular cover or rare edition then you are well looked after in this shop. There is also a collection of leather bound Folio Society books, something I’ve never seen before. They are particularly beautiful and some are by authors of renown, like Dostoyevsky and Nabokov, whilst others are more exotic and obscure. When I was last there in January I was very tempted by these books and will probably escort my wallet in there one day soon and buy some of them.

I had a pleasant chat with the owner  - Bill Campbell. He’s been trading at this shop for seven years and loves being in the book business. He was very friendly and gladly showed me around his shop and revealed his extensive knowledge about the second-hand book business. If you venture down to his shop don’t hesitate to ask for a bit of advice.

The shop is situated at 48 High St Fremantle. Give Bill a call on 9336 3060.

Check it out!