About Us

We’re an independent bookshop based in Edinburgh’s seaside community of Portobello.

The Portobello Bookshop is located in what was formerly a fishing tackle shop (Mike’s Tackle Shop) for 30 years, and before that was an old cooperative — something we discovered after removing the frontage of the tackle shop.

Extensive renovations took place from January 2019 to June 2019, during which time we discovered the lovely columns that are now a staple of the shop’s interior, which were hiding beneath plasterboard walls. The aim was to create a warm, modern, open space that’s welcoming and pleasure to spend time browsing books in, and which allows us to host a great events programme.

We opened in July 2019 and, whilst we our first couple of years were extremely different from what we’d anticipated, we’re glad to have made it through a global pandemic and are looking forward to many more years of bookselling.

We’re a general bookshop so stock all kinds of fiction and non-fiction. Our staff are passionate and experienced booksellers who put a lot of love and time into curating our stock, ensuring we bring customers what we feel is an original, diverse and lovely selection of books across most genres.