• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Ian Allan Waterloo to close

Status
Not open for further replies.

Trackman

Established Member
Joined
28 Feb 2013
Messages
2,922
Location
Lewisham
The same shop was fined £7000 earlier this year for selling a craft knife in a modelling kit as part of a sting.
I remember thinking at the time it was a bit below the belt for a sting.
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

deltic

Established Member
Joined
8 Feb 2010
Messages
3,201
Not much transport stock left and they were queuing to get in at just past 9 this morning
 

Western Sunset

Established Member
Joined
23 Dec 2014
Messages
2,494
Location
Wimborne, Dorset
I go into my local Waterstone's - a very poor collection of transport-related books. Same with WHS. Secondhand bookshops; all shut down. Charity shops only slowly reopening and the "best" books have already been creamed off to be sold centrally. Local independent bookseller also doesn't have much of a collection; mostly local railway-related stuff.

Yet I can buy a recently published book (that I know I want) online for 40% off and free postage, surely it's a no-brainer. Should I feel guilty?
 

Mcr Warrior

Veteran Member
Joined
8 Jan 2009
Messages
11,648
If I rightly recall, when the Ian Allan shop in Manchester closed down a few years ago in 2016, there was so little (heavily discounted) stock left in the final days that the shop actually closed a few days early.
 

Andy Pacer

Established Member
Joined
11 Jul 2017
Messages
2,644
Location
Leicestershire
If I rightly recall, when the Ian Allan shop in Manchester closed down a few years ago in 2016, there was so little (heavily discounted) stock left in the final days that the shop actually closed a few days early.
Better get down there sharpish then!
 

Mcr Warrior

Veteran Member
Joined
8 Jan 2009
Messages
11,648
Tad far from Manchester.

Actually preferred the former Ian Allan Birmingham shop. Greater choice of stock there.
 

Mcr Warrior

Veteran Member
Joined
8 Jan 2009
Messages
11,648
It was when I visited last in c. June 2018. Ground floor was largely military related stuff, the railway and other transport books section were all upstairs. Spent a few bob that day, obviously not enough others ever did.
 

Andy Pacer

Established Member
Joined
11 Jul 2017
Messages
2,644
Location
Leicestershire
It was when I visited last in c. June 2018. Ground floor was largely military related stuff, the railway and other transport books section were all upstairs. Spent a few bob that day, obviously not enough others ever did.
Thought so, I had a vague recollection of it. In fact last year I hadn't realised it had closed and walked round in circles in Birmingham looking for it!
 

Andy Pacer

Established Member
Joined
11 Jul 2017
Messages
2,644
Location
Leicestershire
Predictable that they get a mad rush when closing down, the self-same people who probably never bought anything during normal times.
There's probably a lot of truth in that. I once knew someone who rather naughtily advertised stock in his shop as a sale even though the price was the same and sales not surprisingly increased.
 

Busaholic

Veteran Member
Joined
7 Jun 2014
Messages
14,029
I go into my local Waterstone's - a very poor collection of transport-related books. Same with WHS. Secondhand bookshops; all shut down. Charity shops only slowly reopening and the "best" books have already been creamed off to be sold centrally. Local independent bookseller also doesn't have much of a collection; mostly local railway-related stuff.

Yet I can buy a recently published book (that I know I want) online for 40% off and free postage, surely it's a no-brainer. Should I feel guilty?
Of course not, but may I just point out that very, very few recently published transport books are offered at 40% off by anyone, and if your local independent book store was to match that they'd have given away all their profit and, in many cases, would be subsidising you to take it away. Now I've retired from bookselling, I have to pay retail prices and, for the books I want, rarely pay less than 75-80% of the published price, often the ACTUAL price for the specialist stuff I crave.
 

Taunton

Established Member
Joined
1 Aug 2013
Messages
10,018
I too went down for a last look today; only a limited number at one time allowed in the shop, there was a queue right along the pavement. Average age I would say around 65, which is possibly part of their problem. The stock was indeed notably depleted, in fact I might describe it as not a lot left. It's a shame. The longtime staff appear to be trying to the end, but a number of those coming out past the queue had managed nothing. I must have spent a considerable amount, into four figures, in the (30?) years it has been there. I think I have still got them all.

I had a last look back as I left. It's probably the final contact I'll ever have with the Ian Allan organisation, who developed the interest of so many. The ghosts of Gerry Fiennes, Cecil J Allen, his son G Freeman Allan, and a whole string of specialists, whose IA published writings have inspired a couple of generations into a range of both interests and careers, are finally gone.
 

Busaholic

Veteran Member
Joined
7 Jun 2014
Messages
14,029
I too went down for a last look today; only a limited number at one time allowed in the shop, there was a queue right along the pavement. Average age I would say around 65, which is possibly part of their problem. The stock was indeed notably depleted, in fact I might describe it as not a lot left. It's a shame. The longtime staff appear to be trying to the end, but a number of those coming out past the queue had managed nothing. I must have spent a considerable amount, into four figures, in the (30?) years it has been there. I think I have still got them all.

I had a last look back as I left. It's probably the final contact I'll ever have with the Ian Allan organisation, who developed the interest of so many. The ghosts of Gerry Fiennes, Cecil J Allen, his son G Freeman Allan, and a whole string of specialists, whose IA published writings have inspired a couple of generations into a range of both interests and careers, are finally gone.
It does rather sound like a wake, one in which we of a certain age and (broadly) similar interests are left to reflect on our own mortality. I was there in spirit, but I'm rather glad not in reality, it might have felt a little bit too raw.
 

Western Sunset

Established Member
Joined
23 Dec 2014
Messages
2,494
Location
Wimborne, Dorset
Even libraries don't have much of a selection nowadays. As a Chartered Librarian, we used to go off to exotic places like Preston and choose books over a couple of days from large wholesalers. Nowadays much is done by "supplier selection", so libraries tend to be very samey with their stock. Many "coffee table" type railway books, which are neither one thing nor another.
 

danorak

Member
Joined
13 Feb 2016
Messages
23
I visited earlier in the week following Capybara's post. I guessed that there'd be queues yesterday based on my experience of visiting various sales in the past, and it was already starting to look a bit sparse when I went. A great shame and I feel for Kerry and the team. I felt rather sad saying goodbye and leaving for the last time, having been a regular since the early 90s. Real end of an era stuff.
 

jfollows

Established Member
Joined
26 Feb 2011
Messages
5,757
Location
Wilmslow
Today's Sunday Times has an article (behind a "paywall") (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/...p-puffs-towards-its-waterloo-sunset-j3t5cwpd6): “Our average customer is over 50 and we don’t think the average 50, 60 or 70-year-old is going to hop on a train to London any more.”
Trainspotters’ last refuge, Ian Allan Book & Model Shop, puffs towards its Waterloo sunset

The last branch of the chain founded by the anorak’s anorak is closing its doors

Rosie Kinchen
The Ian Allan Book & Model Shop has had customers from around the world

The Ian Allan Book & Model Shop has had customers from around the world (JACK HILL)

Nick Allan, director of the company founded by his grandfather Ian, said Covid-19 had hurt it: “Our average customer is over 50 and we don’t think the average 50, 60 or 70-year-old is going to hop on a train to London any more.”

He said the closure was also a sign of waning interest in transport history: “We are finding there is not as much interest with the younger generation because of iPhones and computer games.”

In the past decade the company has closed shops in Birmingham, Manchester and Cardiff and sold its magazine and book publishing arms as sales declined.

How you feel about this will depend on your point of view. Here, I should declare an interest. My father, 70, is a railway enthusiast. As a teenager, I spent more weekends than I care to remember standing in the rain on a platform trying to hide my face and smother my shame.

If there is a brutal regime looking for new ways to torture young women, asking them to pick up a copy of Railway Modeller on the way home from school is a good start.

Yet it was not all that long ago that trainspotting was a national obsession, and Ian Allan was the one who kicked it off. Allan, who died in 2015 at the age of 92, worked as a clerk for the Southern Railway’s publicity department at Waterloo during the Second World War. He had the idea of compiling a book containing the technical data of the engines and listing them by number.

Remarkably, given the constraints of wartime censorship, his first booklet, ABC of Southern Locomotives, was published in 1942 and sold out immediately.

The hobby took off in the postwar decade. At its peak, 250,000 schoolboys joined the Locospotters’ Club, gathering on platforms or at the lineside to cross off the numbers of passing steam engines in their ABC British Railways Locomotives (one pocket volume for each of BR’s four regions). By 1950 police were being called to exciting stations such as Preston to deal with the crush of spotters.

For most, the enthusiasm died out over time. The locospotters morphed into a railway preservation movement, rescuing dozens of branch lines and engines for posterity. One or two celebrity anoraks remain. Last year Sir Rod Stewart, 75, revealed to Railway Modeller (the magazine I once hid inside a copy of Vogue) a huge, intricate model of a US city he had built and donated £10,000 to restore a model railway in Market Deeping, Lincolnshire, that had been destroyed by vandals. Jools Holland and Neil Young are also fans.

For the most part, the transport fanatic is much maligned. My father has weathered our mockery with good- natured forbearance. When we made a Thomas the Tank Engine cake for my son’s birthday last year, my dad pointed out that Thomas is an E2 class locomotive and ours had too many biscuit wheels.

Lately I have realised he is having the last laugh. Not only has his hobby relieved the stress of a high-pressure career and eased the shift to retirement. It is also now mitigating the boredom of being locked down. There is a poignancy to Ian Allan closing at a time when hobbies have never felt more important.

Nick Allan says the decision to close is commercial. Most specialist titles are now on Amazon and, while the magazine circulations drop, the chatter of excited hobbyists thrums on in online forums.

In fact, the internet seems to be taking the hobby in directions it has not been before. Vicki Pipe, best known as half of the YouTube sensation All the Stations — she and her partner, Geoff, spent 2017 visiting every railway station in Britain — said she was motivated partly by wanting to show that women have a role to play on the railways.

Nevertheless, when Ian Allan closes its doors later this month, a piece of British transport history will be lost for ever. The customers in the shop last week had turned up despite Covid-19. People do not come here just to buy books, Foster said: “As you get older, your circle of friends gets smaller and it is nice to go somewhere where people know your name.”
 
Last edited:

ANDREW_D_WEBB

Member
Joined
21 Aug 2013
Messages
865
Given the very limited amount of stock left yesterday I would be surprised if it lasts until next Saturday. 75% off books, 50% off everything else, all shelving has gone apart from that around the perimeter walls. Mostly military stuff left.
 
Last edited:

Mcr Warrior

Veteran Member
Joined
8 Jan 2009
Messages
11,648
Given the very limited amount of stock left yesterday I would be surprised if it lasts until next Saturday. 75% off books, 50% off everything else, all shelving has gone apart from that around the perimeter walls.
This was the case when Manchester closed a few years ago. Got a few real bargains that I probably wouldn't have bothered with if they'd still been full price.

Which leaves the question, now that all of the Ian Allan outlets have closed down, where else is worth visiting, that'll probably have a decent selection of recent stock to buy from?
 

AlbertBeale

Established Member
Joined
16 Jun 2019
Messages
2,690
Location
London
This was the case when Manchester closed a few years ago. Got a few real bargains that I probably wouldn't have bothered with if they'd still been full price.

Which leaves the question, now that all of the Ian Allan outlets have closed down, where else is worth visiting, that'll probably have a decent selection of recent stock to buy from?

I go to Stanfords for travel books - including the latest European Rail Timetable when setting off anywhere (annoyingly, the Ian Allan shop only sold the two seasonal issues of the ERT). Stanfords also have a certain amount of stuff about rail travel - but little about the more specialist historical interests that I presume many Ian Allan customers would have / have had. But aren't there any bookshops dealing with historical material that might have at least some relating to transport history? Maybe one of them could expand a bit more into that part of the history market?
 

deltic

Established Member
Joined
8 Feb 2010
Messages
3,201
This was the case when Manchester closed a few years ago. Got a few real bargains that I probably wouldn't have bothered with if they'd still been full price.

Which leaves the question, now that all of the Ian Allan outlets have closed down, where else is worth visiting, that'll probably have a decent selection of recent stock to buy from?
Robert Humm in Stamford which sells new and secondhand is probably the largest one left but I think the shop is presently closed due to Covid and is only selling on-line.
 

Mcr Warrior

Veteran Member
Joined
8 Jan 2009
Messages
11,648
Similar with Nick Tozer in Huddersfield last time I spoke to him a few weeks ago. Spent £75 with him last time I was there.
 

AlbertBeale

Established Member
Joined
16 Jun 2019
Messages
2,690
Location
London
In connection with bookshops selling railway-related material, I saw a note from the ERT people saying that Stanfords were in trouble. Pretty much all shops in central London have lost a lot of their trade in the last 6 months, and since Stanfords specialises in selling books and maps for travellers ... and there aren't so many of them at the moment ... then I can see why they'd be even more affected than most. I realise that the overlap of material between the Ian Allan shop and Stanfords isn't that great, but people wanting material about rail travel - even if not about the trains themselves - might like to give Stanfords some business. They're such an institution - it would be tragic if they went under.
 

Busaholic

Veteran Member
Joined
7 Jun 2014
Messages
14,029
In connection with bookshops selling railway-related material, I saw a note from the ERT people saying that Stanfords were in trouble. Pretty much all shops in central London have lost a lot of their trade in the last 6 months, and since Stanfords specialises in selling books and maps for travellers ... and there aren't so many of them at the moment ... then I can see why they'd be even more affected than most. I realise that the overlap of material between the Ian Allan shop and Stanfords isn't that great, but people wanting material about rail travel - even if not about the trains themselves - might like to give Stanfords some business. They're such an institution - it would be tragic if they went under.
Stanford's are crowdfunding - I do hope they survive because the country can't afford to lose such iconic places. I admit I only ever visited it once, but travelling far has never been more than a dream for me. I did buy something, as I usually do when I visit a bookshop (I exclude WH Smith from that description.)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top