21 today: Wayfarers' store has the key to the door!
A RENOWNED antiquarian book shop is celebrating its 21st anniversary of trading at Southport’s Wayfarers Arcade.
Kernaghan Books was opened by Bryan and Alwyn Kernaghan in 1985 when the couple came to Southport from living in the Indian Himalayas.
After spending six years working at an international school overlooking the Tibetan border, Bryan and Alwyn arrived in the town intending to only stay six months.
However, 21 years later they are firmly rooted in the resort, running one of the region’s most popular antiquarian and fine book shops.
Belfast-born Bryan said: "We were offered accommodation in Southport when we returned from India and one day we got chatting to an artist at Wayfarers Arcade about books. He made us an offer to sell books from the corner of his studio-gallery and the rest is history.
"Lord Street Properties offered us our own unit, and even though it wasn't part of our plan, we thought we’d better give it a go and now we are one of Wayfarers' longest established tenants."
He added: "We have always said we would only continue doing things that we are still enjoying, so hopefully Kernaghan Books will be here for another 21 years – as they say, old booksellers don't retire they just turn over a new leaf!"
The bookshop started with two small bookcases in the corner of an artist’s studio gallery and over the years it has grown on the first floor to occupy one of the largest shops at Wayfarers Arcade.
Today it stocks more than 20,000 old books, including many rare and valuable titles, which are housed in the Book Room, an Edwardian style gent's library, complete with a fireplace, leather reading chairs and wall to wall bookcases.
Over the years they have sold many first editions of literary greats, including James Joyce's Ulysses, and once they even sold a rare Medieval Book of Hours for £13,500. They also stock many old Southport books, early brochures and historical artifacts from the town.
Other curious items in stock include an extraordinary 1:5 scale model of the "Eliza Fernley" lifeboat, which was lost off Southport's sands with nearly all of its crew in the great maritime disaster of 1886.
Wayfarers Arcade manager, Yvonne Burns, added: "Congratulations must go to Kernaghan Books on marking its 21st anniversary in the arcade. Bryan and Alwyn have worked hard over the years to build up the shop and establish it as a well-known retailer of antiquarian and fine books."
