Kemptown Bookshop named retailer of the year at the city's business awards

Kemptown Bookshop⁴ has been named Retailer of the Year at the Brighton & Hove Business Awards 2026. Winners in 18 categories were announced at The Grand Brighton on Thursday 1 October.

Company of the Year went to Young Friends Nursery. The other finalists were Babble, DMH Stallard, Shoreham Port and Woodhart Group. Shoreham Port won Large Business of the Year instead, and Babble took Best New Business.

Kemptown Bookshop opened in 1976 and is the city’s oldest independent bookshop. It has three floors of books for adults and children, plus a first-floor café serving coffee from White Cloud Coffee Co. and pastries from the Open Bakery. Cathy Hayward, a fiction writer, took it over in 2022. On the first Wednesday of every month it hosts the 5am Writing Club, for local writers who want to start before sunrise.

It was up against Baroque Bespoke Jewellery, Harriet’s of Hove, Spark & Bell Lighting, Stanley Road Store and The Book Nook. Spark & Bell Lighting, one of those finalists, won Medium Business of the Year.

Brighton Toy and Model Museum won the Leisure & Tourism Excellence Award. Its category included the Laine Pub Company, One Garden Brighton³, Sussex Cricket and the Brighton Marathon Weekend. Sussex Cricket won the Community Hero Award.

Clarity Environmental was the only double winner, taking both Employer of the Year and the Best Customer Service Award. Kindly won the Sustainability Champion Award, with A4Labels.com named one to watch.

The other winners were Prsnt (Gamechanger of the Year), ForLoop (AI Excellence), Daze Livingstone (Future Talent of the Year), OneFamily (Professional Services), Orange Property Group (Property Business of the Year), Always Possible (Small Business of the Year) and Richard Pollins (Businessperson of the Year). Barry Carden was named Outstanding Brightonian.

The awards are open to businesses of any size. Past winners include Brighton & Hove Albion, Bird & Blend Tea Co, Infinity Foods, the Duke of York’s Picture House and Mooncup.