Hidden Edinburgh is all about discovering new hidden gems in the city and we think new bookshop and typewriter shop Typewronger on Haddington Place is something quite wonderful; run by Tom you can read his story about how he set up this really unique shop. Read on and make sure you check out the shop next time you are heading towards Leith Walk.
Bio
In 2012 I quit my job in the Scotch Whisky industry to run away to Paris and sleep in a bookshop, which I did for approximately 6 months in total before getting a job as a lifestyle guru to a 13yo kid. After a year of hanging around Shakespeare and Company I decided I wanted to become a bookseller, so I moved to London where I was fortunate enough to get a job with Heywood Hill, a beautiful old shop in Mayfair where Nancy Mitford used to work. Though not at the same time as me. There I learned the workings of the trade – everything from dusting the books and arranging the displays to ordering entire private libraries.
After a year of this literary high life I moved back to Paris to work as full time staff at Shakes & Co. It used to really annoy me that the typewriters in the upstairs library there were all broken, so I started taking them home after work and looking up videos / discussion threads on how to fix them. Once I’d fixed all the shop machines I started buying and fixing more. Once there wasn’t enough room left for them in my apartment I started selling them in my spare time and became the Typewronger – Paris’s only typewriter mechanic.
I returned to Scotland in October last year after a brief stint working at Desperate Literature in Madrid. I worked in a call centre and did a couple of shifts at McNaughtan’s, Scotlands oldest second hand and antiquarian bookshop (est 1957). I started renting the Leith Walk Police Box every Sunday and selling my books there under the name Typewronger Books. Within a few weeks I had established an account with a wholesaler to get in new titles, and was even offering customer ordering and subscription services. I ran a pop-up shop from the studio I had a share in at St Margaret’s House. When Anna and Derek at McNaughtan’s asked me if I’d like to rent their gallery space to set up a shop full time I jumped at the chance! Typewronger Books has been open full time at McNaughtans from 1st June.
You are a new independent shop located on Elm row selling books and typewriters, tell us a bit more about the business and how the idea came about?
I believe I am the only Typewriter shop in Scotland (certainly the only one listed on the typewriter revolution page.) There may be other mechanics out there, and if so please get in touch! I get mail from all over the world (often on some excellent stationery. You know the business card scene from American Psycho? It’s just like that.)
The idea for the business is simple: bookshops aren’t like other shops. They’re places where people meet, discover new ideas (and old ideas), where they can create and debate, express themselves or hide, be transported into their several worlds whilst sitting in an armchair. All the books are books I would want to read. All the editions are the ones I would want to own. I have to actively encourage people to use the big Royal 10 typewriter on the main desk – they think they’re not allowed. Well it ain’t that kind of shop, this is the kind of shop where you can touch things. I usually offer tea, sometimes the odd glass of booze if I’m having one, because a bookshop should be friendly, and I stay open late (until 9pm) so that people can hang out after work.
I offer a bespoke subscription service where I interview subscribers before selecting and posting them one book a month for a year.
What type of books do you sell?
Good ones. Or at any rate books I want to read! Fiction, non fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, murder, the occult poetry, cookery, travel, science, history, kids books and many more…
And talk to us typewriters….. how did you discover your love for these literary machines?
With journalists for parents I’ve used typewriters from an early age. By the time I went to uni computers were the order of the day, but I brought my typewriter with me to write letters/short stories. In Paris I started organising Type-IN! events where people are invited to turn up and type in!
Can people buy typewriters from you or do you just repair them?
I buy and sell machines, I do servicing and repairs.
You have an events programme in the pipeline tell us a bit more about what you are planning?
I’ve had a few events, poetry, music, comedy – I’m always happy to chat to people who want to set something up.
Finally tell us about TWEETWRONGER
The Tweetwronger is a 1984 Adler SE320 electronic typewriter connected to a raspberry pi. The pi checks the shop account once a minute and if somebody has tweeted @tweetwronger and included the hashtag #typethis it will send a signal through a a box of electronics that emulates the 1980’s and the typewriter will type it out.
Store address & opening times
Address: 4a Haddington Pl, Edinburgh EH7 4AE
Tuesday-Sunday 11am-9pm
www.typewronger.com
www.facebook.com/typewronger/
www.instagram.com/typewronger/
