A new crowdfunded bookshop run by young volunteers has opened in Willesden Green Tube station, as it coins itself London’s smallest.
TINY, a very small bookshop, opened its doors on Saturday November 7 in Willesden Green station, with crowdfunding of nearly £2,500 making the initiative possible.
The effort has been completely community based, with local young people being the driving force behind the creativity of the shop.
Founder, Jolene Skordis, said: “The turnout was better than we could’ve expected.”
The shop made over £1,000 in just over five and a half hours of their first day open, 40% of which was profit.
The launch day also hosted Zadie Smith for a book signing, an author from northwest London with Booker Prize nominations and millions of books sold worldwide.
There was also a storyteller, a poetry reading and workshops for younger children.
Many people attending had heard of the launch on Instagram, while others were in the area and stumbled across it.
Skordis’ passion for books and her desire to encourage young people into the arts brought this idea to life.
She said: “This shop is kind of two of my passions together in one place.”
She found a need for culture in the area after speaking to locals and set out to fundraise on NextDoor and through word of mouth.
The concept of TINY came from talks with many people, including young people.
Skordis added: “We don’t have a bookshop in Willesden Green, and the shops at the station have been empty for a number of years.
“Young people in the area don’t have third spaces.”
She said young people expressed a need for music and books that they can touch and feel, a “predictable reaction against AI and technology.”
Skordis works at UCL full-time, and has organised the startup in her evenings, with the help of the volunteers.
She said: “What’s become clear is we are filling a need, because otherwise it wouldn’t have happened so quickly and so organically.”
The shop was set up by Skordis with the help of ten 16 to 25-year-old volunteers, some of whom run the photography and PR.
The music curation has been led by Scarlet Brandman, a 22-year-old volunteer, and another volunteer, Robin Clark, also 22, has been in charge of book curation and has had to choose every book with intention, due to the lack of space.
Skordis said: “I’m fairly sure this is London’s smallest bookshop. People keep dispatching me to look at other small bookshops, they all have three times the space we’ve got.”
The launch day also saw another young person sign up to be a volunteer. Skordis aims to pair under-18s with over-18s as a sort of mentoring volunteer relationship, as she said: “it can’t be done by someone like me.”
She said: “When we spoke to young people they did want something that they felt some sense of ownership over, some sense of it being their creative space.”
The shop sells vinyls, CDs, books from many genres, and a few magazines. TINY specialises in science fiction books and romantasy, based on young people’s needs, however many more genres can be found in the small shop.
Lamps were donated by Anglepoise and shelves by a local architect. Saqi Books donated a box of new books, and a local person donated a fire risk assessment.
During the day of the launch, multiple people from the community also asked to donate books to the shop.
Skordis said people seem to understand the need for young people having access to the arts at a time when it is “being slashed everywhere else.”
She added that Transport for London, Places for London, and the local council have been “very helpful” throughout the entire startup, trying to secure the best rates for the shop and being on board with the idea as a whole.
She said: “Ideally, the shop would get to the point where it’s self-sustaining, with as little input from me as possible going forward.”
Featured image credit: Saskia Hector
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