Ian Allan Birmingham - Closed

[BDL]

The one thing that made business trips to Birmingham worthwhile and now it's gone. The London shop isn't a patch on the the now closed Birmingham one. Gutted!

[Brevet Cable]

Who & what?

[Domvickery]

It’s a hobby book / model store, it had a very large aviation section

[Brevet Cable]

Only Ian Allan I knew of was the travel company near Bristol Castle.

[cg_341]

Yep, they're part of the group - Ian Allan Publishing is the main company from what I can see.

[5944]

Yep, they're part of the group - Ian Allan Publishing is the main company from what I can see.

Was. I'm not sure there's much left of the company now except the shop at Waterloo. The magazines are produced by Key Publishing, the books by Crecy, and the travel agent is owned by Clarity.

[psquiddy]

Ian Allen was a key publisher of train, bus and aircraft spotting books and magazines such as the ABC train guides, Civil Aircraft Markings, Busses Illustrated and Railway Modeller.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Allan_(publisher)

He died in 2015.

[BDL]

Yep, they're part of the group - Ian Allan Publishing is the main company from what I can see.

Was. I'm not sure there's much left of the company now except the shop at Waterloo. The magazines are produced by Key Publishing, the books by Crecy, and the travel agent is owned by Clarity.

Waterloo shop has a poor aviation selection compared to the one recently closed in Brum, good news though the former manager is opening a shop not too far from the former location.

Usual tale though of the landlord wanting more money, upping the ground rent so they had little choice but to close.

[PeteM]

Sad news. The last time I visited the Waterloo Shop it was very much geared towards the bus / train enthusiast. At the time the Lower Marsh building was owned by Ian Allan and the office space upstairs rented out. Probably why the shop has remained open.

[Skyflash]

I visited the Birmingham shop on a few occasions, it was a cracking place. Could happily while away a good half-hour browsing the shelves.

[AlexC]

[quote="PeteM"]The last time I visited the Waterloo Shop it was very much geared towards the bus / train enthusiast.quote]

Very many years since I last visited that shop, may even have been when I was a very lowly architectural assistant having to have drawings printed nearby before we got our own dye-line
printing machine.

[PeteM]

The Waterloo shop closes its doors for the last time next weekend (31st October).

[hunterxf382]

There is some good news for Birmingham lovers of Ian Allan!
The former Assistant Manager set up a new store barely one year ago, tucked away in the city centre, and is fast gaining a great reputation as word gets out - helped by some recent local media coverage too!

Tornado Books & Hobbies is pretty much a slightly smaller version of the former Ian Allan store

I'm planning a visit next week all being well, as I was a regular visitor to Ian Allan's shop, and do miss it!

https://www.tornadobookshop.co.uk/