History

Smiths Alternative Bookshop was established in 1976 as 'The Alternative Bookshop', the name 'Smiths' was added in 1980.

When Smiths first opened it was an in-your-face, no holds barred alternative book shop that addressed issues around left leaning politics, feminism, Gay & Lesbian issues and basic human rights when those issues were still considered to be on the fringe (and with the Gay and Lesbian issues it was still illegal in many places). It also provided books on the alternate world of the occult, Wicca, paganism and the like. Buddhism and Jungian psychology and books on a range of non-mainstream religions were also a focus of the bookshop. We continue to supply books on these subjects and help people access the books they want.

Peter Strong is the owner and manager. Peter purchased the shop from David Vickers in 2005. David purchased the shop from his father, Alan, in 2000. Alan, David and Jo Vickers ran the shop during the 90's with a lot of assistance from Alan's wife Julia. Alan sadly passed away in 2005 and he is still mentioned by many customers as a good man who knew how to look after customers.

Alan Vickers purchased the shop from Harry and Adrian Smith (who, as you have probably worked out, gave the shop the Smith part of its name).

The Smiths purchased the shop from Peter Le Bretton in 1977. Peter started the shop in 1976. Nobody is sure where Peter is at the moment, although he was supposed to have moved to Perth.

We were originally located on Northbourne Ave in the Sydney building and moved to our present location in the Melbourne building in 1981.

The shop has had a number of managers but the ones that are best remembered include:

Michael Preiss who managed the shop from sometime in the early 200s to July 2007 when, due to the opening of a stupid mall nearby and the resulting change in walk past traffic for the shop, he left our employment. We believe that shopping malls are contributing to the downfall of civilisation.

Seamus Campbell who managed the shop from sometime in the 80's to 1993. He is most famous for never wearing shoes or socks in the shop - even in the coldest winter. He is still involved in the book industry by designing websites and he actually designed this site so his connection with Smiths is long lasting indeed. His company is called Boldacious and they do many websites besides bookshops, a link to his business is at the bottom of the page.

Jeremy Yapp managed the shop in the late 90s before moving onto bigger and worser things by working in Parliament House where he helps our fabulous politicians. More importantly Jeremy is a talented musician - he is adept with the viola and he sometimes performed at the shop. He nows lives and works in the UK.

We went onto the internet in 2006 to help people get faster access to our catalogue but we are still happy for you to browse in-store.