Buy a Book and Help Save an Iconic Newtown Building
Gould’s Book Arcade has been forced to shut and its huge collection of second-hand books, records, comics and posters are being sold to help create a new community space.
Gould’s Book Arcade was a Sydney treasure. Crammed with thousands of used and rare books, records, magazines and manuscripts, the shambolic two-level store on Newtown’s King Street ¬was much more than a bookstore – it was a time capsule of the written word.
Earlier this year the shop announced it would close due to rising rent prices (‘cos Sydney) and move to the other end of King Street, leaving the characterful building to be turned into apartments (‘cos Sydney).
Not on our watch, said COMMUNE which, for the past six years, has been converting warehouses and other spaces earmarked for development into collaborative and community spaces across Sydney’s inner west.
“We’re well versed at … what it involves to keep these buildings and spaces alive and have been successful at not bowing down to development,” says COMMUNE community manager Jennifer Noorbergen. “This is an iconic Newtown building we thought so strongly about and said, ‘We have to do something to save it.’”
And it has.
COMMUNE prevented the building from being demolished. Now it’s selling the plethora of books, records, comics and posters it inherited from Gould’s and using the proceeds to restore the building. Noorbergen can’t be 100 per cent sure Gould’s had Australia’s largest collection of second-hand books, but she says it must be close. “Gould’s has been here since the late ’80s and it had some incredibly weird and wonderful books, in particular a huge collection of political and social commentary.”
Gould's came about in the 1960s as a result of the anti-Vietnam War movement. It changed names and locations many times but settled on King Street in 1989.
In addition to giving Sydneysiders the opportunity to pick up a book, COMMUNE has also set up a space for people to have their say, offer ideas and talk about how they want to see the space used in the future.
“We want to offer a community space for the neighbourhood of Newtown and we want to maintain the legacy and history of the building. We want to honour and embed it into whatever we do in the future,” Noorbergen says. “Over the next few weeks we’re leaving that open and asking people what the final space will become. It’s important people feel they are involved in that process.”
Books start from $1 and boxes of reads from $10. Records are $5.
Booktown is happening daily from 11am to 7pm at Gould’s, 32–28 King Street, Newtown, until Sunday September 30. Mor
