It's very sad to see Borders in Queens Road is closing after the company went into administration last week. I found it quite a shock to walk past on Sunday morning and see the windows full of garish yellow signs announcing the bad news and a clearance sale.
For me Borders has become a kind of indoor community space otherwise lacking in our towns and cities. A space where anybody can go to hang out for a while. Where else can you spend the whole day whiling away the hours on comfy seats, reading books, browsing an unrivalled range of magazines and enjoying a coffee in a social setting without being hassled? Maybe the public library, maybe a cafe, maybe a museum or art gallery. Maybe Waterstone's. But none do informality and comfort that Borders does. Or did (in recent years I'm sure they must have done away with some of the sofas). First Brighton, then Bournemouth and now Bristol: for me, Borders has become a place to spend an hour or so when idling or needing to kill time. I could visit safe in the knowledge there would be something there to interest me. But soon it'll be gone. Walks home via Park Street will no longer provide the opportunity to take time out for half an hour or so.
I feel guilty saying it but I have contributed to the company's downfall because I can't remember the last time I purchased anything in Borders. For me, it had simply become a space to browse the books, videogames, DVDs and music away from the cold. If I found anything interesting I'd check the price then and there on Amazon via my phone and bookmark it. Terrible. But evidently not uncommon behaviour - the company made a loss of £10.3m in 2007 then 13.6m last year.
So thank you Borders. Thanks for the all the times you were there when I needed you. Thanks for offering me the job in Brighton all those years ago (I never took it). Thanks for opening late in Brighton back when you first opened so there was somewhere to hang out other than the pub those evenings. Thanks for the Douglas Coupland event (Brighton again; he used my drawing!). Thanks for being there in Bournemouth on Friday afternoons as I waited for M to finish work. Thanks for being there in Bristol the past two wet summers when you offered somewhere warm and dry to sit and read.
Sorry I didn't buy more. But most of all, sorry for all the staff that will lose their jobs.
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