The PortobelloBookshop

Jack Clark opened The Portobello Bookshop on the seaside suburb's High Street in July 2019 and made it, fast, one of Scotland's most decorated young bookshops: a Scottish Design Award for its interior in 2020, and Indie Bookshop of the Year at the inaugural TikTok Book Awards in 2023 — a prize that tells you how the shop reaches its readers as much as how well it serves them. Open seven days a week a couple of streets from the beach, it anchors Portobello's literary life, the Book Festival included. Edinburgh's seaside village used to be where the city went to paddle; increasingly it is where the city goes to read, and this is the reason on the High Street.