Our Grade II Listed building was built in 1761. The ground floor was converted into a shop in 1923 by the local architect  W A Williams. When he built the Bath Electricity Department in 1933 (sadly demolished in 2007) it was described as a 'splendid example of modern architecture in the old tradition'. The same applies to our shop: we love the sense of tradition that stretches from 1761 when number 8 was built (and was a house) to 1923 (when the ground floor was converted into a shop) to 2021 (when Persephone Books arrived and uncovered W A Williams's beautiful Art Deco decorative ironwork echoing the first floor 'balconettes'). The basement, where we store our books, is virtually unchanged since the 1760s: there is a beautiful original fireplace, a range, a bread oven, a Georgian dresser and all the York flagstones are intact. And the first floor, the piano nobile, which was a hairdresser for thirty years, is now the Persephone Parlour where we have book groups, lunches, small concerts, informal film showings and seminars.