On the street, in a huge line, undeterred by rain, they gathered to pass books.
Bibliophiles, builders from nearby construction sites, kids with their parents, all stood for hundreds of metres along Bourke Street in Melbourne’s CBD on Thursday morning in a human chain.
They were there to help the beloved bookshop, Hill of Content, move from its location of more than 100 years to a new home.
In wintry weather 300 people stood in a line passing thousands of books up Bourke Street, from Hill of Content’s old store into the new.
As rain started falling people pulled out umbrellas and raincoats, with the books wrapped in brown paper.
Hill of Content is the city’s oldest bookstore, opening in 1922 at 86 Bourke Street. The three-storey heritage-listed building it occupied for 103 years was sold for $5.3m last year, with the bookshop’s owners forced to start searching for a new home.
Diana Johnson, who owns Hill of Content with her husband, Duncan Johnson, said the human chain would pass 17,000 books up to the new store.
“There are a fair number of people I know in the line, lots of loyal customers, we are so grateful they have supported us all those years,” she said.
“We couldn’t possibly close the shop down on our watch. It’s been in Melbourne literacy for over 103 years. So we decided we would continue it on.”
Within an hour, the army of booklovers had already put hundreds of books on the new shelves, Johnson said.
She was inspired to try relocating the store’s inventory with a human chain after a customer told her of a “book brigade” in the United States that helped move Serendipity Books in Michigan to a new location.
“I am just so grateful,” Johnson said.
The new premises at 32 Bourke Street are just metres away from the old, and Hill of Content put out a call on social media earlier this month asking booklovers to help it move.
“Many hands make light work. Join us and see the power of bookish community,” the Instagram post read.
On Thursday, literature lovers turned out in force.
Jess, who was standing in line, described it as “a human conveyor belt”.
She admitted she “didn’t come often” to the old store, but would visit the new one.
A little further up the chain, three young builders had jumped into the line after seeing it happening while on break from work.
“We were just doing the fit-out work on the building, next minute people lining up, so we thought we’d get down,” Wyatt said.
Standing next to them, Angela joked they were getting “book fit” as they stood in line.
“These young men, they don’t really read a lot, I don’t think,” she said. “But we’ve been giving them some recs.”
In line, there was also a lot of discussion about whether it is Hill of Content, as in satisfied, or content, as in production – a debate that has cropped up among the city’s booklovers.
“It’s what you want it to be,” said Johnson, before adding “but it’s actually hill of content”, like the peaceful.
“When Albert Spencer first came down here and set it up in 1922 it was a very, very wild area,” she said.
“So he went up into the gardens and walked around, wondering, what can I call my shop.
“[He called it] the hill of content, where you can come in and you can be contented and get away from all that’s happening outside. It’s been 103 years.”
