I am sure the subject of this week’s photograph, Beach’s Bookshop, will be well remembered by the readers of this column. Indeed, I spent many happy hours in the bookshop myself and my brother-in-law was the architect who provided the plans when the building later became Prezzo Italian Restaurant.

Beach’s Bookshop was one of Salisbury’s most celebrated and historic landmarks. It was housed in the magnificent 14th century timbered High Street building and it was a Mecca for antiquarian book collectors from all over the world. In 1989, Tony Beach, the shop’s 61-year-old owner and proprietor, announced that he was to retire after 42 years in the business. “I am going to have some unhappy customers,” he admitted at the time. It was Mr Beach’s parents who founded the shop in the 1930s and Tony joined the family business after a brief apprenticeship in farming. He was soon hooked and from that day until his retirement he never lost his fascination with second-hand antiquarian books. One of his most noticeable acquisitions was a very rare early Shakespearean play. Another, and probably the most valuable, was a written manuscript presented to Queen Elizabeth I.

Beach’s was one of Britain’s top 20 rare book shops and received enquiries from as far afield as Australia. Famous customers included former Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden, author William Golding, and the actor James Robertson Justice.

The shop, which had a comprehensive second hand department, welcomed many thousands of browsers and tourists as well as regular specialist collectors. Until 1946 it housed the Moonraker Café on the first floor, and it was also known for its stock of prints, oil paintings and watercolours.

At the time of his retirement, Tony Beach believed the historic building was the oldest in the world to house an antiquarian bookshop open to the public.