Bookshop, Salts Mill

(Best viewed large)
Here's a picture of my second home - the bookshop in Salts Mill, Saltaire. As well as books, it sells a good selection of cards, posters and prints. As you can see, it's massive, occupying half of one of the huge galleries on the second floor of the West Mill. It retains clear traces of its industrial past - the stone floor, cast iron columns, metal pulley and huge windows. (The quality of light was important to the cloth-manufacturing processes in the mill.) And it's enhanced by all the artwork on the walls; many are Hockney prints but some are the work of other artists.

Because the shop is so spacious, it has the advantage of being able to display a lot of books on tables rather than shelves, so that you can see the covers. I think that's an important factor in attracting people to pick up a book. It also has a lovely atmosphere - it can be quite a busy place, especially at weekends, so it has a satisfying buzz about it, but it's also a space made for quiet browsing. When bookshops are closing down all over the place (Borders in Leeds being a recent casualty of the recession), I count it a privilege to live so close to such an attractive store.