Home of Books, a new place for stories, creativity, community and belonging in Sunderland

The Idea

A new chapter
for Sunderland

I've spent my whole career believing that buildings shape lives. That the spaces we make, and share, change how we feel, how we connect, who we become.

Books do the same thing. They hold ideas, they spark imagination, they pass stories from one hand to the next. There's nothing quite like the weight of a real book, the quiet of a room full of them, the chance encounter with something you didn't know you were looking for.

But this was never only going to be about books.

Cities need places to gather. Real, physical places, with a door you can walk through and a chair you can sink into. Somewhere to meet, to talk, to think, to be among other people. We've lost too many of those places. I want to build one back.

And I want to build it in Sunderland. The city I'm from deserves something ambitious, something generous, something that says this place matters and the people here matter. Not a copy of what every other high street has. Something of its own.

So Home of Books is not just a bookshop. It's a place built around stories, creativity, community and belonging. A place to meet, read, write, think, create and belong.

That's what we're building here.