There are not many places in Plymouth where you can walk through the door of a business and know that you are standing inside a building with more than four centuries of history.
But that is exactly what you find at The Book Cupboard on The Parade, on Plymouth’s historic Barbican.
The building itself dates back to 1586 more than 440 years ago when Elizabeth I was on the throne and Plymouth was becoming an increasingly important maritime centre.
The Old Custom House was originally a merchant’s house, rather than a customs house. Its position close to the waterfront would have placed it at the heart of the trading life of Elizabethan Plymouth.
Much of that early character can still be seen today.
The building has Plymouth limestone walls, granite dressings, steep slate roofing and distinctive mullioned windows. Historic England describes it as a deep plan building constructed around a courtyard, with surviving original doorways containing moulded arches and carved details.
It later became a customs house, dealing with the trade that passed through Plymouth’s busy port. Historical records from the early 17th century give an insight into the extraordinary range of goods arriving in Plymouth, including coal, hops, iron, barley, beef, wool, herrings, salt, wheat, sugar, cheese and rope.
Ships were arriving from ports around Britain, Ireland and Europe making this little part of the Barbican part of a much bigger international trading network.
And it has survived some very difficult chapters in Plymouth’s history.
During the devastating air raids of March 1941, the Old Custom House was badly damaged. Yet remarkably, much of its historic façade survived the bombing and was subsequently protected and repaired.
Today, its story continues in a very different way.
The building is now home to The Book Cupboard, a second-hand bookshop that has been part of the Barbican for around 30 years.
For those three decades, the business was run by Andrew Donoghue, who sadly died in January.
Now his sister, Annie Lamont, is helping to carry the business forward and keep Andrew’s memory alive through a new chapter for the shop.
When I visited for the relaunch, Annie was there alongside Sam Burt, who was behind the till, while Alison Harthill was busy sorting through the books.
It was a simple but rather special scene people working together to give a much loved Plymouth business another chance to continue.
And perhaps there is something particularly fitting about that happening here.
This building has already reinvented itself several times during its 440 year history, from a merchant’s house, to a customs house, through war and destruction, and eventually into a shop.
Now, in 2026, another chapter is beginning.
The shelves may be filled with second hand books rather than Elizabethan goods, but the idea of the building serving Plymouth and its visitors continues.
Four hundred and forty years after its story began, the Old Custom House is still in use.
And thanks to Annie and those helping her, The Book Cupboard is hoping its own story is far from finished.
Photographs © Wayne Perry / Plymouth Post