• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Andromeda Bookshop

Barr_Beacon

Barr_Beacon

The Prodigal Brummie
This is a long shot but has anyone got any photographs of Andromeda science fiction bookshop? I think it was in Summerhill near the College of Food & Domestic Arts.
 
I've just joined this site today. I was the owner of Andromeda and I have a box full of photos from our three sites - Summer Row, top of Suffolk Street (#84) and the last one at the bottom of Suffolk Street (Nos 2-5). We were never in Smallbrook Ringway and Birmingham's tallest building is not built on the site of the shop. Nos 2-5 is now a Costcutter store. When I find the photos I'll post a few here. I'm still interested in science fiction and I'm still a member of the Birmingham SF Group which meets every month and has been doing so since 1971.
 
These were taken in the window of the Summer Row shop in the mid 1980s. The TB1 model is not believed to be an original studio model by the way, but I think the Terrahawks cube it is sitting on was an original:-
1678194330209.png
1678194360622.png

Spent many a happy hour (and quite a few quid.....) in the various Andromeda shops over the years!
 
Bought a couple of William Hope Hodgson and had a conversation with a collector of first edition Hodgsons there. Bought some J. G. Ballard short stories too. An excellent shop, and clean. My favourite of the Birmingham secondhand bookshops - they sold new books and magazines too like Interzone.

IMG_2326.jpeg
 
Last edited:
Today i looked for entries about the Andromeda - Bookshop at Birmingham on the internet and found this site.
Thank you so much for giving us the chance to order excellent science-fiction and fantasy books in original language on the continent too. :)
We would not have been able to otherwise.
The "highly recommended" mentions in the mail-order catalogue enabled me to get to know the best SF - books which was extrememly helpful as i could afford a small amount of books only being a university student at the time.

I did manage to go to 2 UFP - conventions in the eighties at Birmingham. It was so much fun and good times, so lively.
Thank you, Birmingham.
By the way , i am a woman from Germany.
 
Last edited:
Visitor said:
Today i looked for entries about the Andromeda - Bookshop at Birmingham on the internet and found this site.
Thank you so much for giving us the chance to order excellent science-fiction and fantasy books in original language on the continent too. :)
We would not have been able to otherwise.
The "highly recommended" mentions in the mail-order catalogue enabled me to get to know the best SF - books which was extrememly helpful as i could afford a small amount of books only being a university student at the time.

I did manage to go to 2 UFP - conventions in the eighties at Birmingham. It was so much fun and good times, so lively.
Thank you, Birmingham.
By the way , i am a woman from Germany.
Click to expand...
I don't remember UFP cons in Birmingham although I went to a lot of others in the city through the 80s and 90s. Maybe I was never that much of a trekkie. I'm not sure if Rog Peyton (he owned the shop) is still around anywhere but around the time he left the BSFG (they are still about) he wrote a list of his all-time best that is reproduced here https://www.birminghamsfgroup.org.uk/Feature1.html .
 
Andromeda went through 3 different locations over time. I could probably find out when and what the addresses were from the old BSFG newsletters - many of which you could find elsewhere on the internet anyway. It was run by Rog Peyton almost to the end. Part of that time Dave Holmes was next in charge. Dave set up his own shop somewhere outside of Birmingham and I've not kept up with him. Rog was also a regular with the Birmingham SF group from their beginning in the early 70s. Through the 90s he did the newsletter most of the time. By coincidence something just reminded me that I took a bunch of pictures on this day in ... and this is one of them. Not a picture of the shop but he was a fixture.
 

Attachments

  • Rog4.JPG
    Rog4.JPG
    17.6 KB · Views: 4
wam said:
I don't remember UFP cons in Birmingham although I went to a lot of others in the city through the 80s and 90s. Maybe I was never that much of a trekkie. I'm not sure if Rog Peyton (he owned the shop) is still around anywhere but around the time he left the BSFG (they are still about) he wrote a list of his all-time best that is reproduced here https://www.birminghamsfgroup.org.uk/Feature1.html .
Click to expand...
Thanks for posting Rog's list. Can I point out that the late Octavia Butler is very much in print these days! Indeed I co-supervised a PhD on her more than 20 years ago. I'm pleased to see much more SF and fantasy in the general bookshops at the moment. I think the last SF event in Birmingham I attended was devoted to J. G. Ballard whose daughter kindly came along. I was an academic rather than a fan, so tended to attend conferences rather than conventions. Though there is often an overlap.
 
I loved visiting the Andromeda Science Fiction Bookshop in Summer Row in the 70s. One of the highlights of my visits was meeting Isaac Asimov the author and getting his autograph, in June 1974.

asimov-first-visit-to-britain.jpg
 
Last edited:
Here is Asimov's itinerary of his visit to Birmingham until his departure on the Queen Elizabeth 2 luxury ocean liner on Sunday, 16th June 1974:

Thursday 13th June

2.00-5.00 pm: Birmingham Book Signing Sessions - (2.00-2.45 pm) W.H. Smith & Son, 29 Union Street, Birmingham 2; (2.45-3.30 pm) Hudson's Bookshop, Lower Temple Street, Birmingham 2; (3.30-4.00 pm) Midland Educational Bookshop, Corporation Street, Birmingham 2; (4.00-5.00 pm) Andromeda Bookshop, 57 Summer Row, Birmingham 3.

8.00 pm: Public Lecture to the Birmingham Science Fiction Group at the Holiday Inn Hotel, Suffolk Street, Birmingham.

Friday 14th June

2.00-6.00 pm: Recording of BBC-1 "Parkinson" TV show.

8.00 pm: Public Lecture organised jointly by British Mensa and the Science Fiction Foundation at the Commonwealth Hall, Craven Street, London WC2.

Sunday l6th June

Departure at midday on the Queen Elizabeth 2.
 
I've checked through what I have of the old BSFG newsletters and this is a rough timeline
The first bookshop opened in August 1971 at Old Hill
In November 1973 the shop moved to 57 Summer Row then to 84 Suffolk St in December 1981 and finally to 2-5 Suffolk St although I don't yet have the date for that. In May 2002 the shop was bought out by the people who owned Dungeons & Starships on Digbeth and closed soon after. Rog retired from selling books at the end of 2009.
Dave Holmes opened a shop called Magic Labyrinth in Leicester after leaving Andromeda. He died in February 2017.
 
I remember buying book from both the shops on Suffolk St, mid/late 90s.

There's a piece in the Evening Mail 27 Jun 1996 about the shop moving a few doors up from their current location. It doesn't seem to mention the number but they were at 2-5 Suffolk St in 1998.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top