Where to buy used books in Bournemouth

Updated 01/10/2026

Bournemouth sits on the Dorset coast between Poole and Christchurch, and the three towns share one unitary council, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. Just three of these fourteen places lie in Bournemouth itself, two in the town centre and one in Boscombe. The other eleven are spread through Poole, Wimborne Minster and the Kingston Lacy estate, the village of Cranborne, the Isle of Purbeck from Studland to Swanage and Corfe Castle, and two Hampshire towns just across the county line, Ringwood and New Milton. Every price mentioned is in sterling.

Charity and heritage counters carry much of the load around here. Oxfam keeps dedicated book shops in Poole, Swanage and New Milton, the National Trust sells donated books on three of its Dorset properties, and a Wimborne museum, Ringwood's Greyfriars community centre and a veterinary charity's shop in Cranborne all stock their shelves from donations. Two of the independents keep short weeks: Black Pug Books in Wimborne Minster trades three days out of seven, while Back Alley Books, new to Bournemouth town centre in February 2026, opens over long weekends.

Spot map

The best spots

Bookshop and café

The Crooked Book

725 Christchurch Rd, Boscombe, Bournemouth BH7 6AQ

A second-hand bookshop on Boscombe's stretch of Christchurch Road that also sells old furniture and bric-a-brac, with a small café and a reading nook for children, as the Bournemouth Echo described it in August 2025. Prices are marked inside each front cover and mostly come to a few pounds, according to that piece, and the owners explained that summer is when they buy at car boots and auctions, leaving the selling for winter. A Facebook post on 30 May 2026 announced a lifetime's collection of art and design books, and on 22 September 2026 the shop showed off a freshly painted green front with new lettering.

Website

Second-hand bookshops

Back Alley Books

1 Granville Pl, Bournemouth

Opened on Friday 27 February 2026 in Granville Place, a short alley in Bournemouth town centre, by an owner who told the Bournemouth Echo that the centre had been missing a second-hand bookshop and promised cult classics, classic fiction and translated novels. It opens over long weekends, Friday to Sunday, and posts its times on Facebook week by week: for the weekend of 18 September 2026 that meant doors at 11am each day, closing at 4pm on the Friday, 5pm on the Saturday and 2pm on the Sunday, after a summer break that ran from 10 August to 3 September 2026. The shop also stocks the current title for its book club, which meets on the first Thursday of the month at Calabrese Kitchen, and copies of Mrs Dalloway were £4 each in September 2026.

Website

Oxfam Bookshop

Oxfam Bookshop Poole

136 High St, Poole BH15 1DN

In Poole, at the top of the High Street just past the railway line and near Sainsbury's, as Oxfam's shop page puts it, with CDs, DVDs, collectable stamps, board games and jigsaws alongside the books. The shop's Facebook page has announced a talk by a local author, historian and poet for Friday 2 October 2026, from 5pm to 6pm, and a tarot-themed poetry afternoon on Saturday 24 October 2026. Oxfam asks visitors to contact the shop for opening times, so ring or message before a special trip.

Website

Second-hand bookshops

Black Pug Books

24 West Borough, Wimborne Minster BH21 1NF

In Wimborne Minster, opposite the Tivoli Theatre: a Georgian house its owner found in 2011 and made into her second-hand bookshop, as the Blackmore Vale magazine told it in December 2025. Floor-to-ceiling shelves of fiction, autobiography, poetry and non-fiction run up to first and rare editions, with LPs and prints in the same room and maps, old newspapers and theatre programmes in an antique apothecary cabinet in the other front room. The profile adds that the shop refuses to sell online and that the money from its £2 paperbacks goes to Dorset & Somerset Air Ambulance and Margaret Green Animal Rescue. Closures are announced on Facebook, as with the three days from 24 to 26 September 2026.

Hours: Thu–Sat 10am–4pmWebsite

All spots by type

Second-hand bookshops

Christian bookshop with second-hand room

Keith Jones Christian Bookshop

2 Hinton Rd, Bournemouth BH1 2EE

Chiefly a new-book Christian shop, founded in the 1950s when the Bournemouth branch of Pickering and Inglis closed, with a second-hand department that its About page recommends to anyone hunting a book that has long gone out of print. A notice dated March 2026 on that page says the shop had no room for further donated books while it waited for Book Aid to collect, and the charity benefits both from surplus donations and from the second-hand takings. Books are accepted as gifts rather than bought, and the shop points drivers to the Central Car Park on Upper Hinton Road.

Hours: Mon–Sat 9am–5:30pmWebsite

New and second-hand bookshop

The Swanage Bookshop

35 Station Rd, Swanage BH19 1AD

In Swanage, a hundred yards from the Swanage Railway station on the main shopping street, this shop sells new, second-hand and collectable books together with discounted and remaindered stock, according to its own website, a holding page that carries no date. Local history, the heritage railway and the people and places of Purbeck get a large section, and the discount shelves lean to cookery, gardening, transport, art, design, atlases, dictionaries and classic fiction. Swanage Chamber of Trade carried it in its business directory in June 2026.

Website

Charity shops

Museum bookshop

Museum of East Dorset bookshop

23-29 High St, Wimborne Minster BH21 1HR

Also in Wimborne Minster, the Museum of East Dorset runs a volunteer second-hand bookshop behind its gift shop on the High Street, spread over a restored Georgian panelled room and a back room given over to fiction. Every book on the shelves comes from donations, and the museum turns away dictionaries, atlases and encyclopedias. Collectable titles are held back for one-day sales: the Bournemouth Echo reported one on Saturday 11 July 2026 with Folio Society editions valued by an expert and free entry, after a two-day book fair on 14 and 15 November 2025. The museum opens Monday to Saturday, closing at 4:30pm until 31 October and at 4pm from 1 November.

Website

National Trust second-hand bookshop

Kingston Lacy second-hand bookshop

Kingston Lacy, Wimborne Minster BH21 4EA

On the Kingston Lacy estate in Pamphill parish, west of Wimborne Minster, the National Trust keeps a volunteer-run second-hand bookshop opposite its main shop, with fiction for adults and children and all kinds of non-fiction, according to the property's eating and shopping page. Visit Wimborne, the town's business improvement district, sent readers to those shelves in April 2026 while promoting the 88 bus from Wimborne Square, which it said runs on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and earns a free hot drink in the café for anyone showing a valid ticket. Sales pay for conservation work on the estate, and the Trust asks donors to phone first.

Website

Charity shop (Worldwide Veterinary Service)

WVS Charity Book Shop & Sewing Room

14 Wimborne St, Cranborne, Wimborne BH21 5PP

In Cranborne, a village north-north-east of Wimborne Minster, the Worldwide Veterinary Service runs a charity shop that pairs vintage fabrics and haberdashery with shelves of donated books, its takings funding veterinary care for animals around the world. A Facebook post on 17 September 2026 pointed shoppers to pre-loved thrillers and classics, an August post spoke of hundreds of books to browse, and posts in May and July 2026 gave weekday-only opening. The charity's online shop also uses it as a collection point for web orders.

Hours: Mon–Fri 9am–5pmWebsite

Community centre bookshop

Greyfriars Community Centre bookshop

44 Christchurch Rd, Ringwood BH24 1DW

In Ringwood, Hampshire, the town's community centre keeps a used bookshop of more than 1,000 books plus jigsaws, open during office hours, where you browse and then pay at reception. Volunteers sort the donated stock, and the centre also stages larger sales: its Instagram account advertised a Summer Book Sale & Craft Fayre for Saturday 1 August 2026, from 9am to 1pm, following a spring sale on Saturday 5 April 2025.

Website

Oxfam Books & Music

Oxfam Bookshop New Milton

112 Station Rd, New Milton BH25 6LR

Over the Hampshire border in New Milton, part of the New Forest district, Oxfam's book and music shop sits in the middle of Station Road, the town's high street. Its Facebook posts from 2025 give a flavour of the shelves: equestrian titles in June, a 1991 HarperCollins three-volume Lord of the Rings priced at £45, Ordnance Survey maps, stamps and jigsaws, and new posts were appearing on the page in August 2026. Oxfam's own page gives no hours and asks you to contact the shop.

Website

National Trust second-hand bookshop

National Trust bookshops, Studland Bay

Groom's Cottage, Beach Rd, Studland BH19 3AX

In Studland, the National Trust lists two second-hand book outlets on its Studland Bay page: a beach-hut bookshop at Knoll Beach and a second-hand bookshop in Groom's Cottage at Middle Beach. The Trust's Facebook and Instagram accounts announced in May 2026 that the Knoll Beach hut was open with books and magazines, and Back Alley Books, posting on 20 August 2026, reminded its followers to bring cash for the honesty box there. Donations go to the visitor reception at Knoll Beach, the same drop-off the Trust named in February 2025 when it appealed for stock for Groom's Cottage.

Website

Oxfam Bookshop

Oxfam Bookshop Swanage

21-21a Institute Rd, Swanage BH19 1BT

Also in Swanage, on Institute Road, where Oxfam's shop page promises a very large fiction range plus collectable antiquarian titles, biographies and non-fiction, and a deep stock of CDs, DVDs and vinyl. Its Facebook page reported on 5 September 2026 that science fiction and fantasy had moved to the front of the shop, and in August 2026 it asked for donations of old Penguins, which it said customers love, and of children's books after a busy summer. Opening times are given only on request, so phone before you go.

Website

National Trust second-hand bookshop

Corfe Castle second-hand bookshop

Castle View, Corfe Castle, Wareham BH20 5DR

In Corfe Castle, the National Trust sells its second-hand books at Castle View, the welcome centre on the A351 just north of the ruins. For its one-day fair of Saturday 18 January 2025 the Bournemouth Echo reported a single donation of more than 700 books, and the castle's Instagram account announced another fair for Saturday 7 March 2026, with stalls set inside the ruins, the usual admission charge and free entry for members. Donations are taken at Castle View or the castle ticket office, and the money raised pays for the castle's conservation.

Website

Scan before you buy

At every one of these spots, snap the shelf with BiblioScan: the AI identifies each book and shows its real resale price. Walk out with profitable books, not random boxes.

Try BiblioScan for free

Local sourcing tips

Several car boot sales around Bournemouth run on into the autumn. The Bournemouth Echo's roundup of 26 March 2026 lists Ashley Heath at Homeland Farm, Three Legged Cross on Sundays, Poole Stadium on most Sundays of the year, Lake Gates at Wimborne Showground on Saturdays and Farmer Palmers near Organford on Tuesdays until 27 October 2026. Ashley Heath, Poole Stadium and Lake Gates post on Facebook before each sale, and Ashley Heath's own site says a rained-off sale is announced there on the morning itself.
Several bookshops in the area sell new titles rather than second-hand: Westbourne Bookshop on Poole Road, trading since 1994 by its own account, Gullivers in Wimborne Minster, Bookends in Christchurch, and The Mysterious Bookcase in Westbourne Arcade, which opened in October 2025 and keeps its pre-loved copies for the blind-date parcels it sells online.
Older lists still carry St Martin's Charity Bookshop on Belle Vue Road in Southbourne, but the Bournemouth Echo reported in January 2024 that it would close on 29 February that year, after more than two decades raising money for homeless people.
On the corner of Ulwell Road and Whitecliff Road in north Swanage, a red telephone box bought by the Swanage and Purbeck Development Trust became a community book exchange on Saturday 3 May 2025, Swanage News reported, with children's books among the shelves. It is a swap, not a shop.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I find cheap used books in Bournemouth?

Start with the National Trust counters: at its book fairs Corfe Castle charges £3 for hardbacks and £2 for paperbacks, the figures the Echo gave in January 2025 and the castle repeated for its March 2026 fair, and the Knoll Beach hut at Studland works on an honesty box. In Wimborne Minster, Black Pug Books keeps a run of £2 paperbacks whose takings go to two charities, and in Boscombe the Crooked Book's prices, written inside the covers, tend to stay at a few pounds, by the Echo's account.

Which charity shops have books in Bournemouth?

Oxfam runs three shops given over to books and music: on Poole High Street, on Institute Road in Swanage and on Station Road in New Milton. The National Trust has second-hand rooms at Corfe Castle, on the Kingston Lacy estate and by the beaches at Studland, Wimborne Minster's museum has another, and Greyfriars in Ringwood and the Worldwide Veterinary Service shop in Cranborne both sell donated books. In Bournemouth itself, Keith Jones's second-hand room helps fund Book Aid.

Which day is best for book hunting in Bournemouth?

Friday. It is the one day when Black Pug Books (Thursday to Saturday), Back Alley Books (usually Friday to Sunday), Keith Jones and the Wimborne museum bookshop (both Monday to Saturday) and the WVS shop in Cranborne (weekdays only) are all scheduled to open. Saturday loses Cranborne, and Sunday is thin: among the shops on this page that publish their days, Back Alley alone trades, and only until early afternoon on the Sundays it has listed (it skipped the Sunday of 13 September 2026 altogether), which leaves the Sunday car boots at Ashley Heath and Poole Stadium.

Where do I sell used books in Bournemouth?

Locally, mostly by giving them away: Keith Jones states that it does not buy second-hand books, and the Oxfam shops, the National Trust rooms and the Museum of East Dorset all run on donations. Anything with real value is better listed yourself on eBay.co.uk, Amazon.co.uk or Vinted. Point BiblioScan at the bookcase before you bag anything up: from one photo it identifies the spines and puts an estimated resale value against each, and the handful worth an eBay listing become obvious.

Before you go

Do you run a store here?

Bookstore, thrift store or consignment shop in Bournemouth: get listed in this guide for free, or tell us what to fix.

Nearby cities

Southampton Portsmouth Swindon

← Used books by city The guide: how to source books for resale →