The Scarlett Letters opens red-hot on Cambridge Heath Road

Censorers and pearl-clutchers beware – Scarlett Letters is bringing radical voices to the high street and a determination to survive is in their blood.

A dancer in gravity-defying heels twirls on a pole surrounded by bookshelves, the audience rapidly sketching her form. Trendy new club night? No, it’s the grand opening of The Scarlett Letters, East London’s latest radical bookshop.  

Open since the end of November, The Scarlett Letters is placed by a quiet corner of Bethnal Green Gardens on Cambridge Heath Road. It was founded and run by local writer and activist Marin Scarlett.

The shop exists ambitiously to create publishing opportunities for marginalised voices. It stocks subversive and underground authors, as well as publishes an in-house zine called ‘The Scarlett Letterpress,’ which aims to pay contributors decently. 

Scarlett designed the bookshop as a community space without pressure for customers to spend money. Inside, you will find books, seating areas, free tea and coffee, and harm-reduction resources.

Outside of the life drawing performance by the East London Strippers Collective, the shop’s grand opening also featured crafts and author readings – an indicator of the variety of events browsers can expect going forward. Upcoming in January is a Wallace and Gromit watch party and a winter writing workshop. 

‘We’re really blessed in our corner of London,’ Scarlett said, ‘We’ve got The Common Press and Freedom [Press Bookshop] and Brick Lane Bookshop and Libreria, all these beautiful independent book spaces that I think there’s been this real appetite for since the pandemic. There was this boom in third spaces that are sober spaces as well.’ 

A radical bookshop needs a radical library – The Scarlett Letters stocks voices on the margins including queer people, migrants, disabled people and sex workers. Its strongest suit is a variety of writing on sex work, also nodded to in the red umbrella logo, a symbol of solidarity. 

‘I talk about us being a radical intersectional space. And because sex work is the survival strategy of all these marginalised groups, it kind of naturally feeds into that,’ Scarlett said.

Opened for trading in the twilight period of the holiday rush, The Scarlett Letters has had a baptism by fire, with last-minute construction issues and an onslaught of trade to juggle from the start. 

A crowdfunder has offset the challenging opening costs, and in the future the shop will also rely partially on grants and donors to keep doors open. Most importantly, Scarlett said she’s felt supported by local customers and other local businesses. 

Bookshops with similar business models like The Common Press have shared tips, and shops like Thompsons on Roman Road and Arches Cafe fueled the stressful renovation period. 

‘East London still feels like people live here like this is their home not just a place that people have their property portfolio,’ Scarlett said, ‘People understand that this is a labour of love.’

If you liked this read Whitechapel and Brick Lane’s eclectic selection of bookshops