The Hydra is a community bookshop, community venue and meeting space. Run by local people as a workers co-operative, the shop grew out of Bristol Radical History Group and other similar networks across the city.
From late 2011 to June 2019, we resided on Old Market in central Bristol, serving wide ranging literature alongside our famous coffee grown by the Zapatistas in Mexico. Sadly the march of gentrification has forced us to take flight. Our new, nomadic Hydra can now be found downstairs at Cafe Kino on Stokes Croft, where we’re continuing to provide our books, zines and meeting space. The hunt continues for a new, permanent home, and if you think you can help us please get in touch!
The bookshop provides a meeting space, as well as an outlet for independent non-commercial publishers and authors to make their books and ideas accessible to the wider community. These books are on topics ranging from politics, history, feminism, animal rights, environmentalism to novels and biographies as well as pamphlets and magazines that it may be difficult to track down in the usual high-street bookshops (if you can find one!)
Are you looking for a place to hold an event or are you part of a group looking for somewhere to have meetings in Bristol?
One of the major aims of the Hydra is to provide a space which can accommodate and promote public events, meetings and discussion.