{{Short description|British academic book retailer and library supply service}}{{EngvarB|date=September 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}} {{Infobox company | name = Blackwell UK | logo = 220px|Blackwell's | type = Subsidiary | founder = Benjamin Henry Blackwell | area_served = UK | key_people = | industry = Retail<br />Bookselling<br />Wholesale | products = Books, Maps | revenue = {{increase}} £58.27 million (2019)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.statista.com/statistics/1023725/blackwell-turnover-united-kingdom-uk/ |title = • Blackwell's: turnover UK 2019 {{!}} Statista}}</ref> | operating_income = | net_income = | num_employees = 1,000 (in 2011)<ref name="library jobs cut"/> | website = [http://www.Blackwells.co.uk/ www.Blackwells.co.uk] | hq_location_city = Oxford | hq_location_country = England, UK | num_locations = 18 shops (2022)<ref name="Our Shops">{{cite web|url=https://news.sky.com/story/family-owned-bookseller-blackwells-in-shop-window-for-first-time-in-143-years-12530187|title=Family-owned bookseller Blackwell's in shop window for first time in 143 years|first=Mark|last= Kleinman|work=Sky News|date=1 February 2022|access-date=1 February 2022}}</ref> | founded = {{start date and age|1879}} | parent = Waterstones }}
'''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,<ref name="history"/> after whom the chain is named, on Broad Street, Oxford. The brand now has a chain of 9 shops, and an accounts and library supply service. It employs around 1000 staff in its divisions.<ref name="Our Shops"></ref><ref name="library jobs cut">{{cite magazine|last=Campbell|first=Lisa|title=Blackwell cuts 19 from library supply business|url=http://www.thebookseller.com/news/blackwell-cuts-19-library-supply-business.html|access-date=27 January 2012|magazine=The Bookseller|date=10 May 2011}}</ref>
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<ref name=Heffers>{{cite news|title=Blackwell's rationalises Heffers Branches|url=http://www.allbusiness.com/retail-trade/miscellaneous-retail-miscellaneous/4668559-1.html|access-date=1 February 2012|year=1999|agency=AllBusiness}}</ref> and James Thin in Scotland in 2002,<ref name="James Thin">{{cite news|last=Cave|first=Andrew|title=Blackwell wins Thin in family feud lull|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2760473/Blackwell-wins-Thin-in-family-feud-lull.html|access-date=1 February 2012|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=20 April 2002}}</ref> the company had more than 70 outlets.<ref name="James Thin"/> Its library supply chain serves an international market, but parts were sold off in 2009, with the North American arm of '''Blackwell Book Services''' and the Australian business James Bennett sold to Baker & Taylor for their academic arm YBP Library Services.<ref name="library service sold">{{cite magazine|last=Neilan|first=Catherine|title=Blackwell Sells Library supply arm|url=http://www.thebookseller.com/news/blackwell-sells-us-library-supply-arm.html|access-date=1 February 2012|magazine=The Bookseller|date=8 December 2009}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Wiley Blackwell sold">{{cite news|last=Osborne|first=Alistair|title=Blackwell duo bury hatchet as publisher is sold to John Wiley|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2950888/Blackwell-duo-bury-hatchet-as-publisher-is-sold-to-John-Wiley.html|access-date=1 February 2012|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=18 November 2006}}</ref>
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.<ref name="Blackwell Partnership">{{cite magazine|last=Denny|first=Neill|title=Blackwell's to close head office, as power shifts to staff|url=http://www.thebookseller.com/news/blackwells-close-head-office-power-shifts-staff.html|access-date=2 February 2012|magazine=The Bookseller|date=8 September 2010}}</ref> 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<ref name="journal disquiet">{{cite news|last=Bowers|first=Simon|title=Blackwell's journal of disquiet|url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2002/jan/23/books.highereducation|access-date=2 February 2012|newspaper=The Guardian|date=23 January 2002}}</ref> 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,<ref name="Philip Blackwell">{{cite news|last=Wallows|first=Harry|title=Blackwell's starts fresh chapter|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2930472/Blackwells-starts-fresh-chapter.html|access-date=2 February 2012|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=20 January 2006}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Last King">{{cite magazine|last=Denny|first=Neill|title=Last King of Blackwell's|url=http://www.thebookseller.com/profile/last-king-blackwells.html|access-date=2 February 2012|magazine=The Bookseller|date=28 May 2009}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Blackwell Partnership"/><ref name="Blackwell halves losses">{{cite magazine|last=Campbell|first=Lisa|title=Blackwell Group halves losses within a year|url=http://www.thebookseller.com/news/blackwell-group-halves-losses-within-year.html|access-date=27 January 2012|magazine=The Bookseller|date=31 March 2011}}</ref> The company reported it was expecting to return to profit in 2012.<ref name="Blackwell Partnership"/>{{update inline|date=September 2022}}
In February 2022, the UK book chain Waterstones, itself under the umbrella of Elliott Management Corporation, bought Blackwell's.
==History== thumb|The main shop in Oxford in 1977 The company was founded in 1879 by Benjamin Henry Blackwell, son of the first city librarian, who having finished his education at 13, was apprenticed to a local bookseller for a shilling a week. His father, Benjamin Harris Blackwell, had been heavily involved in the Temperance Society. The society promoted, as well as religion, self-education and also encouraged reading. The society provided separate rooms for non-alcoholic refreshment and silent reading. A religious family, the Blackwells had also become involved with the Temperance Society due to Benjamin's father being teetotal, and as a protest against the government making money from the excise duty on alcohol.<ref name="history">{{cite web|title=48 – 51 Broad Street, Oxford|url=http://www.headington.org.uk/oxon/broad/buildings/north/48,49,50,51.htm|work=Broad Street Oxford|publisher=Headington|access-date=27 January 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110702063215/http://headington.org.uk/oxon/broad/buildings/north/48%2C49%2C50%2C51.htm|archive-date=2 July 2011}}</ref>
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.<ref name="history"/> To promote universal access to literature, Blackwell's pioneered a series of cheaper books, from a one-volume Shakespeare to "3-and-6 novels". The publishing company was merged into the main company in 1921, and a scientific section was added in 1939.
When Benjamin Henry died in 1924, Basil Blackwell took over from his father, and went on to head the company for decades. Basil Blackwell wanted to preserve fine printing. After rescuing the Shakespeare Head Press, he commissioned belles-lettres, including well-known classics such as the ''Pilgrim's Progress'', the works of the Brontës and a complete version of Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales''.
In 1966, the Norrington Room was opened, named after Sir Arthur Norrington, the President of Trinity College and extending under part of Trinity College. It boasts three miles (5 km) of shelving and at {{convert|10000|sqft|m2}} merited an entry in the ''Guinness Book of Records'' as the largest single room selling books.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Guinness Book of Records|year=1967|publisher=Guinness Superlatives Limited|location=London|isbn=0-900424-00-1|page=123|edition=14th}}</ref>
===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.<ref name="history"/> Blackwell's took over the Heffers bookshops in Cambridge in 1999, and in 2002 acquired the academic bookshops of James Thin in Scotland.
Both the Oxford and London flagship shops have won Bookseller of the Year at the British Book Awards.<ref name="history"/>
On 29 October 2012,<ref>{{cite magazine|url= https://www.thebookseller.com/news/last-minute-delay-uk-nook-launch?quicktabs_1=0|title=Last-minute delay to UK Nook launch|first=Benedicte |last=Page|magazine=The Bookseller|date=12 October 2012|access-date=11 August 2022}}</ref> 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.<ref>Steadman, Ian (26 September 2012), [https://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-09/26/barnes--noble-nook-launch "Barnes & Noble's Nook HD and HD+ tablets will come to UK in November"], wired.co.uk. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121204004015/http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-09/26/barnes--noble-nook-launch |date=4 December 2012 }}. Retrieved 8 December 2012.</ref>
The company remained in the hands of the Blackwell family until February 2022 when it was acquired by Waterstones.<ref>{{Cite news |date=28 Feb 2022 |title=Waterstones acquires Blackwell's, the UK's biggest independent bookseller |first=Jem|last= Bartholomew|newspaper=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/feb/28/waterstones-acquires-blackwells-the-uks-biggest-independent-bookseller |access-date=28 Feb 2022}}</ref>
===Gallery=== <gallery mode="packed" heights="125px"> 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== {{Portal|Companies|Books}} * Books in the United Kingdom
==References== {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Blackwell UK}} * {{Official website|https://blackwells.co.uk/}} <!-- per WP:ELMINOFFICIAL, choose one official website only --> * [https://web.archive.org/web/20160701140740/http://www.oxfordcityguide.com/TouristInfo/SightSeeing.html Photo and other information on OxfordCityGuide.com]
{{Bookshops in London}} {{Bookstore Chains}}
Category:Book publishing companies of the United Kingdom Category:Bookshops of England Category:Privately held companies of the United Kingdom Category:Retail companies established in 1879 Category:Shops in Oxford<!-- original shop --> <!-- chain --> Category:Book distributors Category:Book selling websites Category:British brands Category:Companies based in Oxford