Shrewsbury bookshop named best in the Midlands closes after scaffolding, flooding and coronavirus pandemic

Owners at Button & Bear made the announcement today and said a combination of long-standing scaffolding blocking the shop window, severe flooding which cut off parts of the town centre and the Covid-19 crisis has meant the shop is not in a position to reopen.

The children's bookshop, in Castle Street, first opened in 2016 and was this year named the Independent Bookshop of the Year for the Midlands.

But Oswestry-based owners Louise and Jon Chadwick said that while the business may have been able to recover from each setback individually, the consecutive events mean the shop can no longer cover its costs.

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A statement from the bookshop said: "After a challenging start to 2020 and our inability to continue to cover our costs, we are not in a position to reopen and have to say goodbye to Button & Bear.

"As well as struggling with Covid-19, we started the year off with scaffolding which appeared (and is still in place) surrounding our shop, blocking our window and causing customers to cross over away from our shop. This was followed by flooding in Shrewsbury cutting off the town centre with car parks closed for up to three weeks.

"Each one of these we may have been able to recover from but now without our events, with restricted numbers of customers, we are not able to continue to meet our overheads.

"The highlight of the year has been that we have won Independent Bookshop of the Year – Midlands Region. We are so pleased to have achieved this and it gives us something positive to end on. As with everything we have done, we couldn’t have done it without you, our customers."

Louise and Jon were aided in their family-run business by their four daughters.

With a focus on sparking a love for reading among young people, the shop's woodland room held about 25 children's events each week.

Throughout the festive period, the shop and its seven members of staff also raised enough money to work with The Virtual School in Shropshire and provide every looked-after child with a free book.