{"id":622269,"date":"2026-09-12T08:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T08:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622269\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T08:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T08:48:13","slug":"death-of-belfast-bookshops-continues-with-city-centre-store-set-to-pull-shutters-down-for-good-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/622269\/","title":{"rendered":"Death of Belfast bookshops continues with city centre store set to pull shutters down for good \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Book lovers in Belfast have been dealt another blow with news that one of the last remaining bookshops in the city centre is to close its doors for good.<\/p>\n

A treasure trove for second-hand books of all genres, Keats and Chapman on North Street is a favourite destination for readers, but the shutters are set to come down for the final time at the end of October.<\/p>\n

Confirmation of the closure comes as plans continue for a major redevelopment<\/a> in that corner of the city centre.<\/p>\n

The loss of the store, which is packed from floor to ceiling with everything from classic literature and antique tomes to sci-fi and horror, follows the loss of another popular bookshop in Belfast earlier this year<\/a> when Book Paper Scissors in the Stranmillis area closed after nine years in business.<\/p>\n

\"More<\/a>\"Death<\/a><\/p>\n

Once Keats and Chapman closes next month, it will leave only three regular bookshops in the city centre area selling new and used books, along with two Christian book outlets.<\/p>\n

In total, the loss will mean Belfast as a whole will have just 14 bookshops left.<\/p>\n

In the late 1980s, readers in the city had a choice of no-less than 33 bookshops to browse.<\/p>\n

The Irish News spoke with a staff member in the store who confirmed that Keats and Chapman is to close, with no plans to relocate.<\/p>\n

The store had previously been located in the nearby North Street Arcade, which has lain derelict for more than two decades since it was destroyed in a fire in 2004.<\/p>\n

\"KeatsKeats & Chapman is among the last bookshops in the city centre PICTURE: COLM LENAGHAN <\/p>\n

It is one of the last remaining businesses in North Street, now a shadow of its former self, and the location for a proposed major residential and retail redevelopment, which is currently the focus of a public consultation.<\/p>\n

The scheme is proposed by Castlebrook Investments, and would see 1,000 new homes, two hotels and commercial space built in the area between North Street and Donegall Street.<\/p>\n

The site, next to St Anne\u2019s Cathedral, is owned by Castlebrook, which had previously secured planning permission for a controversial scheme known as Tribeca, before it stalled.<\/p>\n

Castlebrook say the revised proposed scheme, which no longer has the Tribeca name, would revive the area and help meet Belfast City Council\u2019s targets for city centre living.<\/p>\n

\"KeatsMost of North Street in Belfast lies derelict amid ongoing plans for a major redevelopment of the area PICTURE: COLM LENAGHAN <\/p>\n

The firm is set to submit a full planning permission for the revamped development before the end of this year.<\/p>\n

However, the proposals to flatten and redevelop the area around North Street have been opposed since even before the Tribeca proposal, with a campaign led in recent years by the Save CQ (Cathedral Quarter) group.<\/p>\n

Writing in the Irish News last year<\/a>, vice chair of Save CQ, Dr Agustina Martire, said of the loss of stores in the proposed redevelopment area: \u201cThese are not just shops; they are informal community hubs, economic lifelines, and keepers of local culture. <\/p>\n

\u201cTheir loss strips away not only jobs, but the sense of place that makes a city feel like itself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Book lovers in Belfast have been dealt another blow with news that one of the last remaining bookshops…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4501,113831,72,113,61,60,264201,80,51387],"class_list":["post-622269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-belfast","tag-belfast-city-centre","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-north-street","tag-technology","tag-tribeca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}