The Bay Bookshop

The independent bookshop for unchained minds.

About the Bay Bookshop

The Bay Bookshop opened its doors in Hout Bay in 2002. The decision was influenced mainly by the wonderful view from the shop, mountains and sea. The new shop in the Cape Quarter follows distinctly in that tradition with both sea and mountain views, an estate agent's dream.

Independent bookshops became an endangered species because of the trend towards larger chain stores but in the last few years their strengths: product knowledge; personal, rather than personalised service and a tailored selection of stock, have led to an encouraging resurgence.

In the Cape Quarter and Hout Bay we have assembled a stock selection we trust will appeal to the varied market in its environs. Apart from general fiction, South African titles and children's books we are building up specialist reference, biography, history, design, cookery and travel sections. Book clubs are welcome (we offer the usual discounts and appro service to registered book clubs) and we are able to source unusual or difficult-to-obtain  titles from  our US and UK suppliers.  Book tokens are available if you really can't decide what to buy and unlike some shops, they do not expire! We also have a loyalty scheme which has the best rewards system in town but we don't require you carry yet another card -  register and we'll keep the records.

Bay Bookshop founders, Steve Davies and Pierre Engel both have decades of experience in book-selling, a strong selling point as generally, the older one's bookseller, the more likely they are to know what you want. Pierre owned and managed bookshops in the competitive London market while Steve worked for many years for Exclusive Books.

To add to the experience of the founders, the staff at the Cape Quarter have their own decades of reading and book-selling. Laverne Parfitt has been a bookseller since her parents sold her to Adams and Co. in Durban as a tender sweet 16. After many years with Adams and Exclusive Books, she is no longer sweet 16 or particularly tender but will go to any lengths to obtain a book for a customer. Carol Duveen, not only a colleague but friend first met Steve and Laverne when they opened the first Exclusive Books in Durban.  Despite at first glance appearing a lady who lunches, Carol was soon heaving trolley-loads of books from the delivery van to the shop. We also welcome the experienced Greg to the Cape Quarter team.

At Hout Bay Pierre and Steve will continue to be available. We also welcome the mercurial  Marie Louise to the Hout Bay team.