Now in our 53rd year

Kim’s Bookshop was started in 1971 in Worthing by Kim Francombe an avid book collector whose vast collection started taking over her house

Outgrowing her front room, she opened a small shop in West Buildings, Worthing with a stock of 250 books.  This shop became a well-known glory hole of interesting volumes and was soon recognised for the enthusiasm and knowledge of Kim and her eldest daughter Camilla.

Camilla soon moved on to open her own second-hand bookshop in Brighton and later in her present location at Camilla’s Bookshop in Eastbourne. Lin joined her mother Kim in 1976 and started expanding and developing the business.

The quantity of stock soon outgrew the shop and the business subsequently moved to larger premises in order to accommodate the ever growing clientele and sheer volume of books.  Another two moves finally saw Kim’s occupying 19, Crescent Road, Worthing, a shop large enough to hold the stock of books which had now increased to 75,000 books. Kim’s also opened a music shop next door which was a great success selling records, cd’s and a vast collection of sheet music.  

Lin bought the Arundel shop in 2009 and further expanded to South Street, Chichester a year later.  At the time, Kim’s was the only second-hand bookshop to have three separate shops.  

Sadly, due to the onset of the internet, the market changed dramatically, and it was no longer sustainable as a business in very large premises off the main High Street so regretfully we sold the Worthing shop and concentrated on the two High Street locations in Arundel and Chichester.

We have always purchased our stock from private individuals thereby putting saleable books back into circulation for the enjoyment of both the more avid collector and general reader. We started selling new books and greeting cards to help generate more sales and are no well known for our exquisite range of individual cards. 

Our locations in Arundel and Chichester established a loyal local clientele with new customers every day coming from all over the UK and the World. 

We still do not sell books on the internet thereby keeping all our new stock in the shops for our regular clientele.  We shelve new titles daily and keep our sections well sorted and organised. 

We have survived the recent challenges and plan to celebrate our 50 years in 2021.