Bookshops in Cheltenham: Independent and Second Hand

Cheltenham is a proper book town. It hosts the oldest literature festival in the world (the Cheltenham Literature Festival has been running since 1949), it has a small but genuinely excellent cluster of independent bookshops, a long-standing antiquarian book scene, and a general enthusiasm for the written word that runs deeper than you'd expect from a spa town in the Cotswolds. If you love books, Cheltenham is one of the more rewarding places in the South West to spend an afternoon.

This is a local's guide to the best bookshops in Cheltenham. The big destinations, the independent specialists, the second-hand shops and the rare book dealers, plus a bit of context on how the town's literary heritage shapes the scene today. It's written for book lovers visiting for the first time, for locals looking to support independent bookshops, and for anyone who wants to know where to actually find a good book in this town.

A quick note before we start. The bookshop scene in Cheltenham is smaller than you'd expect for a town so strongly associated with literature, but the quality of the few shops that exist is genuinely high. You can't walk into a bookshop every ten metres here (the way you can in Hay-on-Wye), but the ones that do exist are properly run, properly stocked, and properly worth visiting.

Waterstones Cheltenham: The Three-Floor Flagship

Let's start with the obvious. Waterstones Cheltenham on the Promenade is the biggest bookshop in the town, with three full floors of books and gifts, a coffee shop with indoor and outdoor seating, and a dedicated children's bookshop section. Yes, it's a national chain, but it's a proper book destination and the Cheltenham branch has built a genuine local following over the years.

Crucially, Waterstones Cheltenham is an official partner of the Cheltenham Literature Festival, which means the shop sits at the centre of the town's literary life every October. During festival week, the store hosts events, signings, stock linked to the festival programme, and a genuinely exciting atmosphere that makes it feel like a proper book festival hub rather than just another chain branch. Outside of festival weeks, it runs a regular programme of local author events, book clubs and signings.

The first floor has fiction and bestsellers, the second floor has non-fiction, and the children's department is one of the best in the region. The café is decent for a quick reading break, and the gift section is worth a wander if you're buying for a book-loving friend.

Best for: General browsing, bestsellers, children's books, gift shopping, festival events.

Hatchards Cheltenham: The History and Art Specialist

In the same building as Waterstones sits Hatchards Cheltenham, a genuinely distinctive bookshop that brings the famous London name to the Cotswolds. Hatchards originated on Piccadilly in 1797 and is one of the oldest bookshops in the country. The Cheltenham branch focuses particularly on history, art, biography and coffee-table books, with a selection that leans more curated and more specialist than the general Waterstones stock.

It's the right bookshop to visit if you're looking for a beautifully produced hardback rather than a mass-market paperback, or if you want something genuinely interesting in the history, biography or visual arts spaces. The events programme is also worth checking, as Hatchards uses the space for year-round literary talks and signings.

Best for: History, art, biography, coffee-table books, collectible hardbacks.

Rossiter Books: The Newer Independent

Rossiter Books is a welcome recent addition to the Cheltenham bookshop scene. Established in 2022 on Rotunda Terrace, the shop promises over 7,000 titles to browse and buy, along with an active programme of author events throughout the year. It's part of a small independent chain of bookshops that operates across the English-Welsh border counties, which means the Cheltenham branch has the curatorial strength of a well-run small chain behind it.

The shop is relatively small but properly stocked across fiction, non-fiction, children's books and local-interest titles. The staff are knowledgeable, the recommendations are genuine, and the atmosphere is the kind of welcoming independent bookshop that every town wishes it had. It's the right first stop for anyone who wants to support a proper independent over the chains.

Best for: Independent bookshop atmosphere, knowledgeable staff, author events, local support.

Moss Books: The Second-Hand Specialist

Moss Books has been trading in Cheltenham since 1992 and has become one of the town's most respected second-hand book dealers. Originally based in Henrietta Street, Moss moved in 2023 to a new home on St George's Place, just off the High Street near the Brewery Quarter. The new space has allowed the shop to properly display its extensive collection, which covers:

Fiction (classic and modern)
Literature and literary criticism
Non-fiction across history, biography, philosophy and travel
Local Cheltenham and Gloucestershire interest
Poetry
Rare and out-of-print titles

The atmosphere is exactly what you'd hope for from a long-established second-hand bookshop: book-lined walls, stacked shelves, the occasional creaking floorboard and a proprietor who actually knows where everything is. It's the right place to go if you're hunting for a specific out-of-print title, or if you just want to spend an hour browsing without expecting to leave with anything.

Best for: Second-hand books, out-of-print titles, serious browsing, literary fiction.

Cheltenham Rare Books: For Collectors and Bibliophiles

Cheltenham Rare Books on Imperial Square is the town's dedicated rare and antiquarian book dealer, specialising in rare, antique, signed and first edition books. The collection is serious: poetry, fiction, plays, crime, sci-fi and fantasy, along with private press editions from names like Cotswold Fine Press. It's a proper specialist bookshop, recognised by the Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association, and a destination for genuine collectors.

This isn't a drop-in-and-browse bookshop the way Moss is. It's more of a specialist dealer with a focused stock and serious prices on the rarer pieces. But if you're a collector, a gift-hunter looking for a genuine signed first edition, or someone building a library of private press editions, it's one of the best specialist destinations in the South West.

Best for: Serious collectors, signed first editions, rare books, private press work, gift-hunting for bibliophiles.

Cotswold Internet Books: Online and Specialist

A slightly different proposition, but worth knowing about. Cotswold Internet Books has been operating as a specialist online bookseller for over 30 years, with a focus on specialist, out-of-print and hard-to-find titles. They're a reference rather than a walk-in shop, but if you're a serious book hunter in Cheltenham it's worth knowing they exist and what they stock.

Best for: Specialist searches, out-of-print hunts, online ordering.

Oxfam Bookshop Cheltenham: The Charity Shop With a Proper Book Room

Cheltenham's Oxfam Bookshop is worth including because it runs a proper dedicated book section rather than just a handful of paperbacks at the back of a general charity shop. The stock rotates quickly, the quality of donations in Cheltenham is generally high (thanks to the wealthy catchment area), and the prices are genuinely reasonable.

It's the right place to pick up literary fiction, classics, history, cookery books and the occasional proper find, all for charity shop prices. Regular visits pay off. Great used book finds tend to happen when you're not looking for anything specific.

Best for: Charity shop book hunting, regular visits, literary fiction at reasonable prices, discovering books you didn't know you wanted.

How Does the Cheltenham Literature Festival Change the Bookshop Scene?

Every October, the Cheltenham Literature Festival brings a massive literary event into the town, and it transforms the bookshop experience for a week. The Festival Village in Montpellier Gardens includes its own pop-up festival bookshop, which is one of the best temporary bookshops of its kind in the country and stocks books linked directly to every event in the programme.

During festival week, you can buy a book from the pop-up bookshop minutes before the author is about to speak, get it signed afterwards, and walk out with the kind of personal souvenir that makes festival-going worthwhile. It's one of the best reasons to visit Cheltenham in October, and one of the most rewarding ways to buy books anywhere in the UK.

Outside of festival week, the permanent bookshops run year-round events tied to the festival's broader programme of author appearances. Waterstones Cheltenham in particular puts on a strong rolling programme of signings and readings.

A Proper Bookshop Day in Cheltenham

Here's a locally recommended itinerary for a full day of bookshop exploration in Cheltenham:

Start with coffee and breakfast at Society Café or WoodKraft (around 9am)
Waterstones Cheltenham for an hour of wandering across the three floors (10am to 11am)
Hatchards Cheltenham for the history, art and biography shelves (11am to 11:45am)
Cheltenham Rare Books on Imperial Square for a specialist browse (noon to 12:45pm)
Lunch at The Ivy Montpellier Brasserie or a Montpellier café (1pm)
Rossiter Books on Rotunda Terrace for the independent shop experience (2:30pm)
Moss Books on St George's Place for the second-hand rummage (3:30pm to 5pm)
End at the Oxfam Bookshop for a charity-shop finale
Afternoon tea or a glass of wine at Hotel Du Vin or The Queens Hotel

You'll have walked comfortably, eaten well, supported several independents, and probably left with more books than you intended. That's a good day in anyone's book.

What's the Best Independent Bookshop in Cheltenham?

For atmosphere and new books, it's a genuine tie between Rossiter Books (newer, broad stock, author events) and Hatchards Cheltenham (more specialist, historic name, curated selection). Both are worth visiting on any proper bookshop day, and together they cover most of the new book ground in the town.

For second-hand books, Moss Books is the clear answer. It's been running since 1992, the stock is deep, and the atmosphere is exactly what you want from a proper second-hand bookshop. Cheltenham Rare Books is the answer if you want to step up to rare and antiquarian.

If you're choosing just one, Moss Books is probably the most distinctively "Cheltenham" bookshop experience, because it's long-established, family-run, and the kind of place you can only have in a town with a serious literary culture.

Where Should You Go for Children's Books in Cheltenham?

Waterstones Cheltenham has the best children's department in the town by a significant margin, with a dedicated area, a wide range of picture books, chapter books and young adult titles, and an enthusiastic approach to children's events. During the Cheltenham Literature Festival, the Waterstones Children's Bookshop operates as a dedicated festival venue for children's events, which is one of the most charming things the festival does.

For a smaller, independent alternative, Rossiter Books has a respectable children's section as well.

Does Cheltenham Have a Big Bookshop Scene?

Honestly, it's smaller than you'd expect given the literary heritage. For a town that hosts the oldest literature festival in the world, Cheltenham's permanent bookshop scene is relatively modest: one major branch of Waterstones, one Hatchards, two or three independents and a rare book dealer. It's not Hay-on-Wye, it's not Oxford.

But it is genuinely high quality. Every bookshop in this guide is worth visiting, each has its own character, and together they cover new books, second-hand, specialist, children's, rare and charity shop ends of the market properly. A patient day visiting all of them will give you one of the better bookshop experiences in any UK town of this size.

The Short Version

Best big bookshop: Waterstones Cheltenham
Best specialist new bookshop: Hatchards Cheltenham
Best independent: Rossiter Books
Best second-hand bookshop: Moss Books
Best rare and antiquarian: Cheltenham Rare Books
Best charity shop book find: Oxfam Bookshop Cheltenham

If you're visiting Cheltenham for the literary festival, tie a day of bookshop visiting into your trip and treat it as the ideal companion to the festival programme. If you're a local, work through the list over a few months and you'll have a personal bookshop map of the town worth keeping. Either way, Cheltenham rewards people who support its independent bookshop scene. They're a proper part of the town's identity, and they deserve the footfall.

For more on the town's wider cultural life, our guide to art galleries and museums in Cheltenham is the natural companion to this article, and the Cheltenham Literature Festival guide covers everything you need to know about the world's oldest literature festival. Happy reading.