Barter Books: open fires, murals and Keep Calm in Alnwick's old station

There are bookshops, and then there is Barter Books. Since 1991 Stuart and Mary Manley have filled the former Alnwick railway station with second-hand books, creating one of the largest second-hand bookshops in Britain and a destination in its own right. The New Statesman once called it "the British Library of secondhand bookshops".

The Victorian station was designed by William Bell and opened in 1887, serving passengers until the Alnwick branch line closed in 1968. The Manleys have restored it as and when they could, re-exposing the old canopy outside, bringing the fireplaces back into working order and glazing a missing skylight. "All of which, to our pleasure, has brought, after its closure in 1968, public life back to a building that was made for it," Mary writes.

Inside, the shop is full of delights. Open fires burn in winter, a model railway runs between the book columns of the central room, and three 40-foot murals line the walls, including the famous Writers Mural by Peter Dodd featuring figures from Oscar Wilde and James Joyce to Doris Lessing and Charles Dickens. There is a children's room with plenty of toys, and a room lined with more than 40 glass cases of antiquarian books.

The shop is also the home of the original Keep Calm and Carry On poster. In 2000 a 1939 wartime poster turned up in a box of books bought at auction. The Manleys framed it by the till, began selling replicas, and the rest is design history.

As the name suggests, customers can still swap books for credit towards future purchases, or simply pay cash, and the catalogue can be searched online. Hungry browsers can head to the Station Buffet, serving good plain food in the station's original tiled waiting rooms, or to Paradise, the ice cream parlour.

Barter Books is open every day from 9am to 7pm, including Sundays and bank holidays, closing only on Christmas Day.

Opening times, the online catalogue and the story behind the murals are on the Barter Books website.