Blackwell UK, also known as Blackwell's and Blackwell Group, is a British academic book retailer and library supply service owned by Waterstones. It was founded in 1879 by Benjamin Henry Blackwell,

The Broad Street branches, which included speciality music and art/poster shops, remained the only ones until expansion in the early 1990s, when at peak after taking over Heffers in Cambridge in 1999 and James Thin in Scotland in 2002, the company had more than 70 outlets. The group were also publishers, under the Blackwell publishing imprint, which published more than 800 journals when it was sold to John Wiley & Sons in 2007 for £572 million to form Wiley-Blackwell.

The Blackwell family ran the company until 2022, with an ownership divided between voting shares owned by the family and wealth shares owned by family and others. There was a public dispute in 2002 between Julian "Toby" Blackwell, the current owner of the group, and Nigel Blackwell, the former chairman of the publishing arm, about the possible sale of the publishing business. This led to an offer of £300 million from Taylor & Francis and to an eventual deal with John Wiley & Son in 2006, as a result of which Nigel Blackwell and Toby's son Philip Blackwell left the business, leaving Toby Blackwell the sole family member still involved in running the company. Other family voting shares were held by a trust, which Toby's shares would transfer on his death, eventually bringing an end to the Blackwell family involvement with the company. Toby Blackwell announced in 2009 that the wealth shares would be distributed between staff, transforming the company into an employee-partnership, similar to that of retailer John Lewis, when the company returned to profitability having spent several years experiencing losses. The company reported it was expecting to return to profit in 2012.

The flagship shop at 48–51 Broad Street, Oxford, was originally only twelve feet square but quickly grew to incorporate the upstairs, cellar and neighbouring shops. Benjamin Henry Blackwell was well respected in Oxford and was elected the first Liberal councillor for Oxford North.

Basil Blackwell, Benjamin Henry's son, became the first Blackwell to go to university; he was awarded a scholarship at Oxford University's Merton College. He was expected to join the family firm, however, which he did in 1913, after a spell as an apprentice publisher in London. He was tasked with expanding his father's publishing business.

thumb|left|The "Norrington Room", contains more than 160,000 books on 3+ miles of shelving

The first Blackwell publication, Mensæ Secundæ: verses written in Balliol College by Henry Beeching, was printed in 1897. Blackwell's began the careers of many writers: J. R. R. Tolkien's first poem, "Goblin Feet", was published in 1915.

Recent history

The company has followed a determined policy since the 1990s to spread out from its established Oxford base and take on a much broader UK presence.

In 1995, Blackwell's became the first bookshop in the UK to allow its customers to purchase online from a catalogue of over 150,000 titles, and opened a flagship shop in London the same year, at 100 Charing Cross Road, which is now one of the company's six most prominent shops. Blackwell's was – with Foyles, John Lewis department stores, Waitrose, Sainsbury's and Argos – among the retailers to launch the Nook e-reader – and, from November, the Nook HD and Nook HD+ tablet computers.

The company remained in the hands of the Blackwell family until February 2022 when it was acquired by Waterstones.

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Image:Blackwell bookstore.jpg|Flagship branch, 48–51 Broad Street, Oxford

File:Blackwell's. (14604009310).jpg|South Bridge, Edinburgh, formerly James Thin

File:Blackwell University Bookshop, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds (4th May 2010).jpg|Woodhouse Lane, Leeds

File:Blackwell's University Bookshop - geograph.org.uk - 1027633.jpg|Cambridge Road, University of Portsmouth

File:Blackwell UK Reading.JPG|Whiteknights, University of Reading

File:Blackwells Sheffield.jpg|Portobello Street, University of Sheffield

File:Blackwells, Charing Cross Road.jpg|The former Charing Cross Road shop, London

File:Heffers - Trinity Street - geograph.org.uk - 972248.jpg|Heffers, Trinity Street, Cambridge

File:Blackwell UK Music, Broad Street, Oxford.jpg|Blackwell's Music, previously at 23–25 Broad Street, Oxford

File:Art poster Blackwells Oxford.jpg|Blackwell's Art and Poster Shop, 27 Broad Street, Oxford

</gallery>

See also

  • Books in the United Kingdom

References

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  • Photo and other information on OxfordCityGuide.com

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