Higginbotham's is an Indian bookstore chain and publisher based in the city of Chennai. The company's first bookstore at Mount Road, Chennai is India's oldest bookshop in existence.[1][2] The company's second bookstore in Bangalore, located at M. G. Road, opened in 1905 and is the oldest existing bookstore in the city. Since 1949, Higginbotham's has been owned by the Amalgamations Group.
Higginbothams Online Book Store Chennai
An English librarian named Abel Joshua Higginbotham established Higginbotham's after reportedly arriving in India as a British stowaway. The captain of the ship ejected him from the ship at Madras port, after he was discovered on board.[3][4][5] In the 1840s, he found employment as a librarian with a bookstore named Weslyan Book Shop run by Protestant missionaries.[3][4] However, the store suffered heavy losses and the missionaries who ran the business decided to sell their shop for a low price. Higginbotham purchased the business, set up his own store and called it "Higginbotham's" in the year 1844.[3] Higginbotham's is, therefore, India's oldest bookstore in existence.[3] It soon gained a reputation for quality. John Murray, in his Guidebook to the Presidencies of Madras and Bombay in 1859, describes Higginbotham's as the "premier bookshop of Madras".[6] In March 1859, in a letter to Lord Macaulay, Lord Trevelyan, the Governor of Madras wrote:
Higginbotham's was renamed Higginbotham & Co in 1888. Abel was Sheriff of Madras during 1888 and 1889. During this period, he involved his son C. H. Higginbotham in the business.[4] On Abel's death in 1891, the firm passed on to the hands of his son C. H. Higginbotham.[3] C. H. expanded the business beyond Madras, and across South India.[4] Since 1944, Higginbotham bookstalls were established in many railway stations on the South Indian Railway and the Southern Mahratta Railway.[4] In 1904, the company's diamond jubilee year, the bookstore shifted to its current location on Mount Road. The new bookstore was specifically built for the firm, and designed to house books. Its high, sloping roof provided improved air circulation, and very few windows were built to prevent dust from entering.[3][4][9] In 1929, Higginbotham's had as many as 400 employees.[3]
Higginbotham's opened its first bookstore in Bangalore at M.G. Road (then known as South Parade) in 1905. The store was located in a two-storey Graeco-Roman-style building constructed in 1897.[10] This is the oldest bookstore in existence in the city.[11]
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Welcome to the Online store of ODYSSEY, the Book and Leisure Store Chain with presence in Chennai, Tamilnadu, India. ODYSSEY is a 26 year old bookstore brand and we wish to give the same wide range, good quality and nice experience on this online store that we have given to lakhs of customers till now in our physical stores. Apart from books, we sell toys, gifts, stationery, etc.
What started off as the only place to score the latest releases and the oldest editions before Landmark, Starmark and Odyssey came around is today a haven for booklovers offering the best of old and new. Higginbothams on Mount Road is, in fact, the first bookstore by the company. The building's heritage structure also adds to the experience giving major art deco era feels. Heavy oak doors, whitewashed brick walls and stained painted glass on the windows have been standing right there as other buildings around it have come and gone. The roundabout staircase and the grandfather clock further add to the colonial charm.
Even today, you can find a lot of rare books here. They have a large section devoted to Indian writers covering all genres of books. The shelves are overflowing with books for all ages, including the latest in fantasy for young adults along with colourful stationery, comics, drawing books and more for children. Higginbothams' got books for competitive exams, rare journals, greeting cards, gifts and interactive books as well. You can even grab a chair on the first floor of the building and lose yourself into your favourite books here. While the steps into it might have changed, the warmth and set up still harness the culture of the past, making us coming back to the store over and over again.
Unlike a lot of bookstores in the city, Higginbothams has a pretty large section devoted to just Tamil writing including fiction, non-fiction and magazines. After the 1989 renovations to retain the original look of the building, the black and white tiled-flooring really takes you back to Old Madras.
Odyssey is a book store chain that commenced with its first book store at Adyar, Chennai in 1995. As on date it has opened shops across the country in Bengaluru, Calicut, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur , Noida and Pune. While it started selling primarily books, the stores now sell music, videos, toys, stationary writing accessories and gift items.
My own memories of Higginbothams are inextricably linked to those long, maddeningly hot summer months growing up. A pitstop, especially at the railway station branch, to pick up Tinkle, Archies, Champak and Gokulam, before rushing to the berth and lying down with a book under the whirring fan was a ritual as well as a treat. When my first book came out last year, it was a great thrill rushing to the store to see it out front on the new arrivals table, on the chequered black and white original standing on old flooring. By old, I mean pretty old.
Just as the old Chennai bookshop was looking to be renovated, along the lines of the Bangalore branch (the oldest book shop in Bangalore too is Higginbothams, from 1905), Covid-19 struck. It has seen so much over the course of its history, but for its current owners this is an unprecedented time for the store.
Before the era of e-commerce, Higginbothams was one of the most popular bookstores for city residents. With the Internet altering the landscape of publishing and distribution, business at book stores has been affected by discounts offered by e-commerce websites.
The bookstore is in talks for building a café on the first floor where people can comfortable sit, read and have a snack. They hope that this idea would give a boost to the reading culture and preference the bookstore already enjoys.
Even diehard bibliophiles prefer to pack hundreds of their favourite books into such hand-held reading devices. At another level, many of us are guilty of buying books online. How can we help it, when they offer a large variety of books and prices that the physical bookshop cannot match?
We live in a time where electronic reading gadgets like Kindles are all the rage and any book, no matter how obscure, can be ordered almost instantly online. However, all the high-tech gadgetry in the world cannot replace the feeling of excitement and wonder that comes with stepping into a bookstore, taking in that new book smell, and turning over the pages as you delve into a new story for the first time.
There is perhaps no better place to begin a list compiling the best bookstores in Chennai than with the oldest bookstore in the country! Established in an office space in 1844 by Abel Joshua Higginbotham, a seafarer-turned-bookstore manager with a deep love for books, Higginbothams is a legend in Chennai, with outlets scattered all over the city. At a time when brick-and-mortar bookstores are struggling for relevance amidst the age of Kindles and other e-readers, Higginbothams continues to attract a huge number of customers on a daily basis. It first draws you in with its distinctive white brick walls, heavy oak doors, and beautiful stained glass windows. The eye-catching black-and-white floor tiles and spiral staircase add to the old-timey charm and hold your attention, while the wonderful variety of books on offer will make you want to stay there for hours on end.
Though this bookstore primarily deals in books in the educational sector, including collection books from school, college, and university-goers, it also harbours a collection of light reads ranging from fiction to non-fiction. They obtain these books from people or organisations looking to donate or sell extra books before segregating them according to genre, updating their inventory on their website, and delivering them across India. Not just a for-profit venture, Used Books Factory also helps out underprivileged students in need of study material.
There are other things in the store, perhaps not so primeval, but rare and unique nevertheless: finely embroidered, ancient pashmina garments, sepia-hued letters written by Indian statesmen, black-and-white photographs and the cameras that took them, gramophones, radios, typewriters, telescopes, compasses, sundials, five-decade old comics, century-old etchings and sketches, toys, vinyl records, coins, stamps, vintage jewellery, old movie posters, books produced by the Gutenberg press.
Although people might have made the shift to e-books and Kindle in the last decade, nothing comes close to the experience of reading a physical book bought from the bookstores. The whiff that hits you as soon as you open a book, old or new, the guilty pleasure of running your hands over its cover, smooth or coarse and the sheer weight of it can make it so much more rewarding.
You can grab a cup of coffee alongside reading one of their books or attend the events they host regularly, ranging from book discussions to movie screenings and plays. Warm and well-informed people at the bookstore, a quiet and scenic café, and a collection of some real gems of books are just what you need for a peaceful read. 2ff7e9595c
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