Sam ReadBookseller

Sam Read opened his bookshop on Grasmere's Broadgate in 1887. His daughter Helen ran it until the 1950s, when it passed out of the family, and Margaret Hughes later handed over to Elaine Nelson in 2000, who called herself only the sixth owner in the shop's history. Booksellers Will Smith and Polly Atkin took over from Nelson in 2023. Wainwright's Coast to Coast route runs past the door, and walkers make up a steady share of custom alongside browsers drawn by the village's literary history, from Wordsworth and Coleridge to Beatrix Potter. Shelves mix Lakeland guidebooks and local history with a wider stock of new fiction and children's titles chosen by the current owners.