Farewell Black Gull

By Juliana Sonsin Lima

When I first moved to East Finchley last year, I took a stroll along the High Road to get to know my new neighbourhood. I was enchanted by the local shops and friendly atmosphere, but something caught my eye that made me sure I was moving to the right place: a small bookshop full of stories and a beautiful light blue plaque with a unique bird in it.

As soon as I stepped into Black Gull Books, I knew this charming old shop would be part of my routine. I was right, of course. Over the last year the bookshop has granted me poetic breaths in the routine of this journalist that works immersed into the digital world, but misses touching paper and smelling books. Black Gull was one of those magical places I could escape to whenever I felt overwhelmed.

I was not the only one to feel like that. Manager Brian Schwartz told me during one of my visits that books are doors to other worlds. He said: “You can lose yourself in them. The greatest thing about a bookshop is people don’t know what they are going to end up with. They come in looking for Wittgenstein and end up with Jamie Oliver, but hey, that’s the thing.”

As a booklover, I believe it is right. And I guess my fellow neighbors agree with that, too. Ever since the announcement that Black Gull would close its doors for good, I watched people paying the shop a visit and talking to Brian in a mourning tone, as if they were losing an important part of them.

As sad as it might be for the community, it surely is even harder for Brian, who has been behind the bookshop’s care and management for 16 years. “My father always knew I would end up working with books and he was right. Running a bookshop has taught me to be a kinder person. The idea that you open the doors and anyone could come in and anyone does, the whole human parade, it has taught me patience. I used to be less tolerant, but something about books in a book store makes everyone calmer, kinder and more human.”

As for myself, I imagined my own world when I was at the bookshop for the last time: in that world would be a new Black Gull on the High Road to keep our hearts and spirits filled with magic and humanity.