SALISBURY'S only independent children's bookshop is celebrating its fourth birthday this week, having survived the Covid pandemic, the cost of living crisis, and a drop of footfall because of scaffolding erected by a neighbouring business.
Jo Boyles, 44, runs the three-storey Rocketship Bookshop on Bridge Street, which is currently hidden behind scaffolding put up by Wetherspoons pub.
The pub is replacing 21 windows which it says are currently "in a state of disrepair", and Jo expects the scaffolding to remain in place until April.
"Footfall did drop when the scaffolding first went up, but Wetherspoons have been great and have been checking in every week", said Jo.
"To start with it did impact footfall, but its picked up in the last few days and I think people have been deliberately coming in because of it".
Half-term has also helped things pick up.
The building has a history of housing bookshops - it was most recently a bar, but before that it was the Everyman Bookshop.
Mum of three Jo, who lives in the centre of Salisbury, is used to challenges at the shop.
She first opened the shop, which is mainly for children and young adults but also has a small section for grown-ups, in February 2020, and one month later, the country went into the first Covid-enforced lockdown.
The shop spent the majority of its first year as online-only while the country got to grips with the pandemic.
World Book Day on March 7 will also bring a welcome boost for Jo.
She is completely booked up for two weeks around the day, visiting schools and doing readings or hosting children at the shop for readings or other events.
School provide a great deal of support for Jo, with Greentrees in Bishopdown recently commissioning her to completely restock their school library, and several other schools ordering all their books through the shop.
Jo added: "I have a lot of loyal customers and work very closely with the schools in Salisbury, and we do author events, readings, workshops, as well as loads of books".
Rocketship Bookshop is open seven days a week: 9.30am to 4pm Monday to Friday, 9.30am to 5pm on Saturdays, and 11am to 3pm on Sundays.
For more information go to rocketshipbookshop.co.uk.
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