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Hudson's book shops

Ah, I loved Hudson's!! In the mid '70's I remember the narrow corridor that connected all the little rooms, I'd usually double back around corners and down to the history department, or squeeze through to the art books department at the far end of the hive. Discovered posters of my favourite artist there. Not long ago I found these old posters and a few books bought at Hudsons in my dad's loft - so still have them now!

First time I visited Birmingham after decades overseas I was really upset to find Hudson's is no longer there. It was the centre of Birmingham for me when I was a teenager.
 
This career would really have appealed to me, but sadly it was only open to young men in July 1967. Viv.

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For a while back in the 1970s I handled Hudson's advertising. Going to the shop for meetings was always a treat because I'd have every excuse to browse the bookshelves instead of rushing back to the agency!
 
From the Birmingham Post in September 1959. The refit says the new fluorescent lighting enabled customers to read ‘virtually’ all the book titles - good lighting, something we take for granted everywhere today. Viv.
 

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Welcome Cynthia. I personally don’t remember a coffee shop. I only remember the shop in the 1960s and 70s. Maybe others can tell us. Viv.
 
i don’t know of any coffee shops in bookshops in the 50s. The first bookshop I ever saw with one in the early 60s was in Amsterdam. I never saw Hudsons after the mid 60s and I can only remember one in London but I think there were a couple more
 
I knew Hudsons very well for a time. I was a Local college librarian & we bought all our books from them. I then moved on to Birmingham Public Libraries. Again, Hudsons had the contract to supply BHam Libraries with books & what a joy that was. Weekly visit to the Book Purchase Dept to look at the weeks new books from Hudsons, choose appropriate titles for library I managed & look forward to their delivery.
I think Pentos took Hudsons over before it became part of Waterstones.

The old Hudsons store at it's peak was truly an incredible place with an incredible range of unusual titles as well as best sellers.
 
My daughter has asked me to write down memories of my life for her and my granddaughters. Hudsons Bookshop features large for two times of my life.

In the late 1950's I became really interested in biology and botany, largely because of a Mr Tuffnell who was my science teacher. I used to buy prepared slides from a specialist dealer in Birmingham (can't recall the name of the shop but it MIGHT have been Hudson and Howard). However, Hudson's Bookshop (no link as far as I know) was where I bought loads of books about science. Then, as a teenager I became very interested in submarines and Hudsons ordered-in many books for me. Some of those were written by sub commanders who served for both the Allies and Germany in both world wars. Many years later, after my wife died I donated them to Oxfam and they found that several of those books had become very hard to find and so proved valuable to them as fundraisers.

I have very fond memories of Hudsons and despite having an increasingly fragmented set of memories about my youth, Hudsons is still in there as a set of very fond memories.
 
A Sparks said:
Wonderful!
A girl in my year went to work at Hudson's (so they did take young women as well as young men!) and I am fairly sure she had the diploma in bookselling. I guess she would have joined in the late 60's
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Just found this site.I worked at Hudsons in the late 60's to mid 70's.There were definatly lots of female booksellers so to .say that it was a career only open to men is nonsense.The shop was always at 116 New street from when it opened in 1906 until Dillons moved it to the old Midland bank building after the takeover.The shop extended across the Burlington arcade to Stephenson St.There was also a penguin bookshop attached to the main shop.Other branches were at the the university of Birmingham and the college at Gosta Green which became the university of Aston,and there was at one time a separate medical book shop which was changed into a transport bookshop.There was also an order processing department in the old Woolworth building which supplied books to schools and libraries.Hudsons, when they were Hudsons ,never sold anything other than books and maps.They were a proper and pure bookshop.We all trained for our Diploma of Bookselling which was then a national qualification.I am very proud to say that I started my bookselling career at Hudsons and it gave me a good grounding in a career which I was able to return to as my children got older
 
superdad3 said:
I knew Hudsons very well for a time. I was a Local college librarian & we bought all our books from them. I then moved on to Birmingham Public Libraries. Again, Hudsons had the contract to supply BHam Libraries with books & what a joy that was. Weekly visit to the Book Purchase Dept to look at the weeks new books from Hudsons, choose appropriate titles for library I managed & look forward to their delivery.
I think Pentos took Hudsons over before it became part of Waterstones.

The old Hudsons store at it's peak was truly an incredible place with an incredible range of unusual titles as well as best sellers.
Click to expand...
We had to order the new publications with library supply in mind.We had to predict the quantities the libraries would want so that they could be supplied from stock as soon as they were published.I used to love it when the library list arrived to see if I had got it right for my departments titles.When Pentos took over from the Hudson Family there wasn't too much change,it was different after Dillons took over and then Waterstones took over Dillons and that is a different story altogether
 
I had a friend who was a girl who worked there in the late 50s, early 60s. Unfortunately I can only remember her nickname - ‘ardcastle. She kept me informed when novels were being published and I bought them from there. Still have them
 
This is how I remember the shop - the section that faced New Street. This is from a 1950s leaflet.

From memory (of the 1960s shop) it really did have a very high ceiling - the image isn’t exaggerated. The interior I remember didn’t have the central shelving section. But there were tables stacked with books.

Viv.

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Brilliant posts! In my family, Hudsons and Rackhams were THE quality shops in Birmingham and it was almost treated as a privilege to enter them. And, yes, my school prizes were derived from Hudsons, I got my Ian Allen train books from the New St shop and my Birmingham University textbooks from their University outlet (just went to the Uni for nostalgia, found Hudsons had become a Rymans and that got me investigating this forum!)
 
I have some books I bought from Hudsons, poetry including Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath and a young fellow called Simon Armitage who published a book called Zoom. It was an education to browse the shelves. The Penguin bookshop was colour coded with orange spines for fiction and black for Penguin classics. White for King Penguin in a larger format. Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber. I waited in line to get my signed copy of Midnight's Children. Hudsons had a welcoming atmosphere and the staff were well informed.
 
Stokkie said:
I have some books I bought from Hudsons, poetry including Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath and a young fellow called Simon Armitage who published a book called Zoom. It was an education to browse the shelves. The Penguin bookshop was colour coded with orange spines for fiction and black for Penguin classics. White for King Penguin in a larger format. Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber. I waited in line to get my signed copy of Midnight's Children. Hudsons had a welcoming atmosphere and the staff were well informed.
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I don't remember getting anything signed at Hudsons although they were good with the King Penguin, Picador and other similar formats at the time. i do have a bunch of signed Angela Carter books 'though I don't think they were from Hudsons.
 
wam said:
I don't remember getting anything signed at Hudsons although they were good with the King Penguin, Picador and other similar formats at the time. i do have a bunch of signed Angela Carter books 'though I don't think they were from Hudsons.
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I don't remember Angela Carter coming to Birmingham. Though I might have missed her. Signings are arranged with the publisher and Hudsons was a family firm though with shops at Aston and Birmingham Unis as well.
 
Stokkie said:
I don't remember Angela Carter coming to Birmingham. Though I might have missed her. Signings are arranged with the publisher and Hudsons was a family firm though with shops at Aston and Birmingham Unis as well.
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I think she came more than once but the time I remember most was some event in the book festival one year when "Magic Realism" was the big thing. The speakers were Chris Priest and Her. Since I knew some people who knew Chris I was roped into a crowd after the event at one of the tables in the MAC's cafe and spent half an hour or more not knowing what to say seated between Chris and Angela with the folks I knew on the other side of Chris.
 
wam said:
I think she came more than once but the time I remember most was some event in the book festival one year when "Magic Realism" was the big thing. The speakers were Chris Priest and Her. Since I knew some people who knew Chris I was roped into a crowd after the event at one of the tables in the MAC's cafe and spent half an hour or more not knowing what to say seated between Chris and Angela with the folks I knew on the other side of Chris.
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I missed her then. I've not read Priest's 'The Glamour' for years and should read it again. Lots of student writers are still into Magic Realism and many write fantasy of course.
 
Monique Woodward said:
Brilliant posts! In my family, Hudsons and Rackhams were THE quality shops in Birmingham and it was almost treated as a privilege to enter them. And, yes, my school prizes were derived from Hudsons, I got my Ian Allen train books from the New St shop and my Birmingham University textbooks from their University outlet (just went to the Uni for nostalgia, found Hudsons had become a Rymans and that got me investigating this forum!)
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Absolutely agree re the quality shops!
I worked at Birmingham Library in the 70’s and Hudsons supplied the majority of books for the library. Each week they would send a list which I would check against our stock.
The books would be sent for a weekly book display and librarians would come and choose from them. Oh the joy of all those books!
After the order was compiled I’d drop it off on a Friday afternoon. Lovely team who worked there too.
 
In 1984 Hudsons had its own Classical Music Department. I don’t remember this at all. It seems to have been across the Arcade (maybe I just never went in there) but I do remember the book section on that side.

Viv.

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