The Cross Art + Books, 33 Roslyn Street, Kings Cross
For Gavin Harris, book is not a four-letter word. Books provide his raison d’être; the reason be gets up in the morning.
Behind the surreptitious, white-fenced 1880s terrace house in Roslyn Street is a labyrinthine cave containing books of all sorts and sizes.
He stocks books about art, design, fashion, heritage/history and gender. He specialises in books about Australian, Asian and Pacific arts, crafts, design, social and cultural mores and dissident life as well as monographs on iconic figures.
In fact, cloaked within the house, but carefully indexed, are about 40,000 books in eight rooms, shelved vertically and horizontally from the floor to the ceiling with even more stored on separate shelves in hallways and crevices. It’s not a typical retail shop but more like a librarian’s research cave with cul-de-sacs and narrow chicanes. You could get lost in this meandering maze! No wonder he admits his biggest challenge is locating a book.
And this is what he does. His carefully curated collection is the plinth for a research facility for the casual enquirer, libraries, research students and serious collectors. He squirrels out books for them.
He’s been housed in this location for 17 years and became a bibliophile after retiring from the Dean of a private design college. He obtained his Doctorate in Philosophy in visual arts.
His passion for books segues into enjoyment in helping people discover what they are looking for. He agrees with Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), the 19thcentury Scottish historian, who said that “in books lies the soul of the whole past time”.
Gavin is a “magpie’ and collects books from book fairs, from those who are de-cluttering and down-sizing, deceased estates, and from car boot sales. He receives orders via email and phone from all over the world and is often seen carrying bundles of postage bags in the street to post boxes.
His oldest book has been from the 18thcentury. The largest “door stopper” coffee table book is 8kg and measures 50cm x 40cm by Dr Valerie Steele. It is a limited edition entitled “The Impossible Collection of Fashion” and is a fashion statement in itself. A normal coffee table may need reinforcing to withstand the strain!
Books thread their way across the globe to remote locations such as Antigua and Zimbabwe. The COVID-19 crisis hasn’t quelled readers’ appetites for books. In fact, sales tripled after the first wave of the pandemic and as the northern hemisphere academic year ends the southern hemisphere academic year begins, evening out any sales bumps.
Gavin says he doesn’t mind being caricatured as a nutty, fusty, dusty, musty, cobwebbed professor type. But in reality he is a shrewd businessman with an acumen for making old books new and relevant again utilising modern technology.
The Cross Art + Books, 33 Roslyn Street, Kings Cross, NSW, Australia 2011
Telephone: +61 2 8065 3110
Email: enquiries@crossbooks.com.au
Hours: 10am to 6pm, 7 days except Christmas and Boxing Days; Good Friday
The Cross Art + Books is a foundation member of the Bookdealers Guild (NSW)
By Andrew Woodhouse
Heritage Solutions
