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The Jacqson Diego Story Emporium children's bookshop in Essex, which closed three years ago, is to reopen in new premises.
Jacqueline Johnson was forced to close her previous shop, in Westcliff-on-Sea, in 2015 due to “multiple problems with the building that were too costly to justify” but has now found a new venue on the town's London Road.
The new shop has a floorspace of 540 sq ft. and will open on 25th October. Johnson will stock children’s books, story related gifts, puppets, cards and stationary, and will run all the old in-store events such as a weekly story time picnic for under 4s, book clubs for reluctant reader and story craft clubs.
Since closing the old shop, Johnson has continued to run the business as a pop-up bookshop, working with schools and libraries, and said she will continue to to run events in the community. She also wants to bring authors to events in schools.
“The shop is on a main thoroughfare close to a theatre, cafe and toy shop. It’s not a high street but it is an area of strong footfall with a co-op and local schools. It was originally a bank and still has the vault in the basement,” she told The Bookseller.
“We work on the theory that there is a book for every child and see the matching of one title and a happy child as a magical thing and huge success.”