cafe-bookshop in Sydney: a great fusion

In the 1700s there were heaps of literary cafes in Paris alone. These cafés helped patrons sit with a hot drink, discussing politics or economics. But when I heard of Ampersand in Sydney, I still had to ask what is the purpose of a book cafe? Library cafes serve as a social hub for the community, providing a space where people can meet and connect over a shared love of books, coffee and discussion. By blending the 2 purposes, these hybrid spaces create an environment that encourages both social interaction and quiet reflection. The café-bookstore concept isn't new, but it has gained serious drive in recent years in cities. 

Very modest front of Ampersand Cafe and Bookshop, Sydney

Time Out 

Sydney’s Ampersand Café & Bookstore is widely recognised for a good reason. Ampersand has been open since June 2007 and since then Oxford St in Paddington has seen many changes; the retailers then were struggling financially. In Oxford St, this literary haven has earned global respect. Ranked 11th in the world’s most likable bookstores in 2023, the shop has 30,000 books spread over 3 floors. Its collection spans all major genres alongside rare and collectible second-hand finds. The bookstore is laden with literary gems and genres ranging from popular fiction, crime, history, war, journalism and more sold at affordable prices. Amble through a special vintage and collectibles section with rare and hard-to-find gems stowed away for the bookish.

Visitors can enjoy coffee in a cosy armchair, or in the bright sunlight of their laneway seating. Inside there’s bench seating towards the front, al fresco seating to the side, and tables and chairs in most corners of the bookshop. But the entrance is modest, presumably promising the ultimate book lover’s hideaway in Sydney.

The best bookshops are both cosy and quirky, familiar yet surprising. Sydney has a wealth of literary gems for book lovers including stunning libraries with comfy nooks and even a highlands town lined with bookshops, Bowral. While there are plenty of excellent cafes in Sydney, cafes with book shops that provide people with a place somewhat more enriching. When thinking of a quaint space in town to while away the hours with stacks of books reaching the ceiling, recommend Paddington’s community treasure.

Ampersand is spread across three storeys, giving ample places to sit and read, and 30,000+ used books covering everything from popular fiction to history. And there’s a special area dedicated to rare, collectible titles. The character-filled spot features a cosy vibe that makes the space feel eclectic and inviting. The fusion of tasteful furnishings gives an aesthetically pleasing air.

One storey of book shelves and reading space

Brasserie

For me, there are 4 things that help in life: chilled white wine, espresso coffee, beaming sunshine and books. So the fusion of coffee and books felt perfect. Café-bookstore fusions have aptly popped up in cities globally, becoming a popular destination for book fans, students, home-workers. More people are happy to work from remotely home these days, but home can feel too quiet or too distracting. A café-bookstore offers the perfect middle ground: a space to be productive AND for browsing breaks.

This site in Sydney has clearly become an important community hub. In this big city (5.5 mill), where life can feel fast-paced and disconnected, these spaces offer a much-needed spot for people to slow down, connect and engage with others. Café-bookstores can host events like book signings, poetry readings and open mike nights.

Spaces in a café-bookstore often feature comfy chairs, wooden tab-les and soft welcoming lighting, giving a atmosphere with a focus on comfort, perfect for a creative afternoon. They offer free Wi-Fi, board games and local art displays, adding to the charm.

The combination of a relaxed environment for working or studying, free Wi-Fi and easy access to coffee helps people focus. Whether writing an essay, writing a novel, or brainstorming ideas for the next big project, it works.

NB many café-bookstores are independently owned. In an age when big shops and online retailers dominate, café-books offer an alternative gathering place to locals. Many pride themselves on offering a curated selection of books, focusing on local authors, niche genres or small publishers that might not be in large chain stores. Similarly many café-bookstores partner with local roasters, bakers and artisans to offer fresh, quality food, supporting small businesses.

In Sydney students studying for exams, freelancers working on projects, friends catching up over coffee, and book fans browsing the shelves. The diverse crowd makes Ampersand feel vibrant and relaxed; a meeting point for people of all ages and families.

One interesting aspect of café-bookstore hybrids can now blend both the digital and physical worlds, embracing technology and allowing customers to enjoy the best of both worlds. Some café-bookstores offer digital reading options, like e-books or audiobooks, through partnerships with digital platforms. This combination of digital and physical also extends to how customers re food: many spaces offer mobile ordering, loyalty apps and online menus.

In addition to its impressive book collection, Ampersand offers a hearty menu that complements the literary atmosphere. Note that although I don’t eat meat, the cafe serves an extensive menu of fresh homemade meals, hearty pies, salads, slow-cooked beef pappardelle pasta and Turkish-inspired labneh eggs that are excellent. Ampersand also has some delicious baked treats on offer including croissants, muffins, bagels and cakes.   

 

Food and drinks on a separate table

goop

See unique second handbooks: literature, art & design, photography, travel writing, biography, fiction, popular crime, history, war, journalism. A children's and young adults section caters well. Browse the vintage and collectibles section to find interesting, hard-to-find books. And Ampersand’s buyer comes to the shop twice a week to buy some of customers' books, IF in saleable condition.

Ampersand has recently earned a coveted spot among the world’s best bookshop cafes, beating popular cities after 200,000+ votes were tallied:

1. Minoa Pera — Istanbul, Turkey
2. The Used Book Café at Merci — Paris, France
3. Halle Saint-Pierre — Paris, France
4. Péniche L’Eau et les Rêves — Paris, France
5. Cafebrería El Péndulo Polanco — Mexico City, Mexico
6. Ampersand Café & Bookstore — Sydney, Australia*
7. Ler Devagar — Lisbon, Portugal
8. Maison Assouline — London, UK
9. Bibliotheque NYC — New York City, USA
10. Livraria Funambule — Petrópolis, Brazil

Chestnut Tree Bookshop & Cafe, W. Footscray,Vic

It supports local schools & the neighbourhood house and supports environmental initiatives.

australiantraveller

Vita Sackville West, Sissinghurst exhibition

 Vita Sackville-West was one of the C20ths most influential gardeners. In 1913 at 21 she married Harold Nicolson in Knole’s chapel in a very public marriage, and so speculation was rife among members of society and the media. Husband Harold was a diplomat and diarist, and though the couple remained happily married, they both had many affairs with same-sex partners throughout their lives.

Vita Sackville West by William Strang, 1918

Virginia Woolf by George Beresford, 1902, National Gallery

Later the couple bought Grade I listed Sissinghurst Castle in Kent in 1930, transforming the rundown estate over the decades into today’s beautiful garden.

Sissinghurst Castle Garden, National Trust Images 

For the first time in Sissinghurst, a National Trust exhibition has focused on her works: Between the Covers with Vita: Life and Literature of Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst in 2025. The exhibition helped visitors explore Vita’s life and legacy, into the world of her pioneering writing exploring women’s lives, loves and identities.

Sissinghurst tower, in front of the house

Vita wanted to be known predominantly as a writer, and at the height of her career she was better known than her friend/lover Virginia Woolf. Her love affairs with women like Virginia had been well documented, and Vita’s output as a writer who explored love and identity was prolific. But in time, some of her work fell into obscurity. Today it is Virginia who is the more famous of the pair for her publications.

Although Vita had an open marriage with Harold, she was careful to conceal the identities of the women lovers who inspired her in her writing eg in the poem The Dancing Elf 1912. This was her first published work, dedicated to her first love and schoolmate, Rosamund Grosvenor, noting her sweet and ethereal spirit.

Women in Vita’s life could also be obstructive regarding her writing. Fearing a scandal from Vitas thinly veiled love affair with her lover Violet Trefusis in the book Challenge 1923, examining themes of censorship, rebellion and trans identity, Lady Sackville got her daughter’s book banned from UK sales, which incensed Vita.

Vita’s relationships with female family members were also explored in her writing, including her first novel Heritage 1919 in which leading character Ruth Pennistan was a farmer’s daughter whose striking features hinted at a heritage inspired by Vita’s own grand mother, Spanish Gypsy Pepita. Vita’s mother reacted kindly this time, writing 150+ letters of recommendation to shops and friends. The women lovers and family members who influenced her writing were explored through the Between the Covers.

Vita's handwritten notes

Hogarth Printing Press 

Vita's desk and instruments

On display were personal objects held by the author, including a book with her handwritten notes inside. 

Visitors saw personal objects such as one of Vita’s notebooks, an original watercolour design for her book The Air and a letter opener made from her grandmother's shoe. And there was an inscription in the Oxford Book of Italian verse from her mother, given to Vita Sackville-West for her birthday. On display at the exhibition was a rare copy of Devil at Westease 1947, Vita’s only murder mystery during her brief flirt with crime writing; it was published abroad but not in the UK! Her other types of writing included science fiction, poetry and novels, and she was among the first writers to create women characters with a mind of their own. Now Vita’s writing has come to be seen as pioneering in its exploration of love, sex and trans identity.

For the exhibition, the National Trust showed the original printing press called Hogarth Press, a publishing company owned by Virginia Woolf and husband Leonard Woolf. The Woolfs were committed to supporting literature, including women’s voices. Their press printed many of Vita’s works at the height of her literary career, including All Passion Spent 1931, one of her most praised and bestselling novels. It told the story of an elderly widow who surprised her family by embracing independence even after her husband’s death.

Sissinghurst was donated to the National Trust after Vita’s death in 1962, as documented in son Nigel’s 1973 book, Portrait of a Marriage. He repeated that, decades earlier, his mother’s most famous affair was with the writer-Bloomsbury Group member

For the first time in the Sissinghurst home, a National Trust exhibition has focused on her writing via her works: Between the Covers with Vita: Life and Literature of Vita Sackville-West at Sissinghurst in 2025. The exhibition helped visitors explore Vita’s life and legacy, into the world of her pioneering writing which explored women’s lives, loves and identities.

The exhibition also featured a series of illustrations and an animated film by artist Sarah Tanat-Jones. Her modern images reflected aspects of Vita’s life and literary legacy.

Summary Known globally for her many same-sex relationships, Sackville-West’s influence as a writer was somewhat overlooked by history. The 2025 exhibition Between the Covers mapped Vita Sackville-Wests literary journey, from her debut poem The Dancing Elf to her final novel, Sign posts in the Sea. Between the Covers took visitors right into the world of Vita’s special writing which explored the lives, loves and characteristics of women. Sackville-West was known as one of the C20ths most influential gardeners.

Many thanks to the BBC and The National Trust.

 

Babies' names

Favourite babies' names in Australia, 2024

See https://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com/2025/02/favourite-babies-names-in-australia-2024.html

Most popular baby names in Victoria, 2024

SBS

Gozo: Malta's second great island

 Gozo is a Mediterranean Sea island, in Malta’s Archipelago. Gozo is Malta’s second-largest island (67 sq ks) with a small population: 37,000. I loved the main island but I needed more days for Gozo.

The Temple Period (4100-2500 BC) was key in Malta’s cultural evolution. The greatest success then was the Temple of Ggantija (3600-3000 BC), a very old free-standing site. The temples were named from the Maltese term for giant, due to the size of these megaliths with notable corner stones and a huge back temple wall. In one apse a circular stone chimney with a small enclosure was where religious events were held. But how were the giant stones extracted, carried and raised?

The Temple

Bronze Age (2500-700 BC) was a key part of the society’s evolution. The new inhabitants were warriors who used copper & bronze tools and weapons. The most exciting relics were found on Tacenc plateau where the 3 mega-lithic stone burials have a slab of limestone, supported by stone blocks.

Phoenicians and Carthaginians (700-218 BC) established a colony on Malta and Gozo, attracted by local ports. The Phoenicians of Carthage took control of Malta and the Carthaginians kept the islands under their power until 218 BC. Near the village of Santa Lucija, there are remains of a Punic rock sanctuary on the SW tip of Gozo.

When 2nd Punic War started (218 BC), the Romans beat the Carthagenians and created a municipality in Gozo, with an autonomous republican government. Thus Christianity arose there for the first time. It is notable that St Paul the Apostle was shipwrecked in Malta while going to Rome in 60AD

It ended in 535 when the Byzantine era in Gozo (535-870) meant the islands passed to the dominion of the Eastern Roman Empire. Arabian Arabs settled in Malta in 870, and the Punic dialect that had originated with the Phoenicians changed eg Arabic influence (870-1127) is seen in many place names and surnames of Gozo’s population. The Arabs were expelled from the islands thanks to Count Roger Norman.

map of Italy, Sicily and the Maltese Archipelago

In 1127, the Normans took over until 1530, thus both Gozo and Malta passed under the governments of Swabia (1194), Angou (1266) and Aragon (1282). A feudal regime began in which the citizens were required to pay large taxes. In 1397 the Gozitanos created a group to defend local interests, fighting to maintain their old privileges and freedom.

For centuries, Malta and Gozo remained under European control. In Mar 1530, the islands passed to the rule of the religious order, Knights of St John of Jerusalem. The island suffered the worst siege, when the citadel was besieged by the Turks of Sinan Pasha in 1551. The medieval walls, without embankments to resist gunpowder attacks, meant the defences succumbed. A tombstone in the cathedral recalls that horror in the commemoration of Bernardo Dupuo, who had to kill his family to save them from slavery and prostitution, and who died fighting the Turkish pirates. The population was taken into slavery in 1798.

Napoleon Bonaparte ruled the French and ousted the Knights from Malta. The French rule was very short-lived (1798-1800), when the locals with British support rose against the French. Malta became a British crown colony in 1880 (until 1964), and the island’s resistance to bombardments from the Axis powers in WW2 were legendary.

See local folklore during the festivals. Since 1530 the Ash Wednesday Carnival in Feb was first celebrated under Aragonese rule, and is still growing. In these 5 days there are colourful float parades, exotic masks and dance groups through the city streets. And in Nadur and Xewkija villages, a carnival after sunset is for people walk in costumes.

Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday week, Holy Week, is full of religious and folkloric shows. On Good Friday a procession through the streets shows the moments of the passion and death of Christ. Hooded men dragged heavy iron chains tied to their ankles or carried a heavy cross. Note the Roman legion showing its armour, spears and shields, along with trumpets and drums. And a procession with the Risen Christ statue on Easter morning.

Xlendi Bay

                                                                                                  

Feasts honoured  each village’s patron saint. Mnarja Agrarian Event is in June as the festival dedicated to Sts Peter and Paul. Gozitanos ate rabbit fried in garlic with wine, while playing the guitarist around bonfires. Now Nadur’s main event is an agricultural exhibition of local products and livestock. In mid-Aug a large Agricultural and Industrial Exhibition is held at Victoria’s public gardens, inspired by the 1851 Great Exhibition London. There Gozo’s farmers show their best farm products and Malta’s President awards the prizes.  

 is more tranquil than Malta Island, giving Gozitans a very relaxed lifestyle and the main sandy beach, Ramla-Red Beach, has fine bathing. There are secluded bays and coves to be explored whilst all the waters around the island have diving and boating. The main coastal resorts of Xlendi & Marsalforn have gorgeous bistros at the water’s edge.

Victoria, called Rabat Gozo by locals to separate it from Rabat on Malta Island, is Gozo’s most populous city: 7,000. The area round town, on a hill in the centre of Gozo, has been settled for centuries. Victoria was the name given in June 1887 by the British government to honour Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, requested by the Bishop of Gozo.

Cittadella

Cittadella, in the capital Victoria, has been the centre of activity in Gozo, first fortified in the Bronze Age c1500 BC. It was later developed by the Phoenicians and became a complex Acropolis by Roman times. The superb Norman Cittadella includes Cathedral of the Assumption; Gozo Museum of Archaeology; Gran Castello Historic House-Folklore Museum; Natural Science Museum; and Old Prison. The acropolis was converted into a medieval castle as the town grew outside the Cittadella walls. Overlooking Victoria, it was rebuilt by the Knights of St John after Ottomans invaded in 1551. The massive stone walls rose to protect the locals from Moslems fighting Christendom.

Inside the walls is a fine C17th baroque Cathedral of the Assumption designed by Lorenzo Gafà, Maltese architect who built Mdina’s Cathedral. Note the painting on its ceiling which depicts the intended interior of a dome. A statue of the Assumption of Mary (1897) was donated by the Leone Philharmonic Society and the statue was originally bought by the band from Rome from the Fabbrica di Statue Religiose of Francesco Rosa 1897. 

St George's Basilica

The other cathedral, St George's Basilica, built in 1670s, suffered severe damage in the 1693 earth quake and had a new façade built in 1818. Only the dome and aisles are modern (1930s-40s). There are works of art by Rome’s Gian Battista Conti and by Mattia Preti. The wooden St George statue was carved by Pietro Azzopardi in 1838. The Cittadella was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites in 1998.

In Feb 2013, the Basilica opened to its new modern, special museum. The Basilica Museum and Cultural Centre display a rich group of historical and art objects unviewable previously. In Villa Rundle Gardens, see a bronze bust of Gozitan C18th historian Canon Giovanni de Soldanis and a memorial to the Ottoman invasion of Gozo, 1551

Cathedral Museum

Malta and Gozo became  British Commonwealth state in Sept 1964, and a Republic in Dec 1974. The Gozo on/off ferry crossing takes 25 mins, leaving hourly.

Thanks to: Visit Gozo; History & Folklore of Gozo; and The Cultural Highlight of Gozo for images.