Books Upstairs

Books Upstairs was established in 1978 and is regarded as Dublin's oldest independent general bookshop, occupying a series of interconnecting rooms spread across three floors in two adjoining buildings on D'Olier Street, just south of O'Connell Bridge. The layout reflects the building's age and piecemeal expansion over the decades rather than a single planned retail fit-out, giving the shop a warren-like character as customers move between rooms and levels of general fiction, Irish interest, poetry and children's titles. Upstairs, the shop runs a café with a large original window overlooking D'Olier Street, a space that doubles as an informal reading room and has made the store a fixture of Dublin's literary and event scene, hosting readings and launches over more than four decades of continuous trading. The bookshop has been recognized by Dublin UNESCO City of Literature as part of the city's literary landmarks, cited alongside the capital's better-known literary institutions despite its comparatively modest size. Now well into its fifth decade under continuous independent ownership, Books Upstairs has maintained its identity as a general bookshop through a period in which many comparable independents in central Dublin closed, making its survival as much a part of its story as its stock.