AN independent bookseller is to open a store in an Edinburgh building designed by the celebrated Scots architect William Playfair.

Topping & Co declared that the 4,000 sq ft store at 2 Blenheim Place will be a “striking addition” to Edinburgh’s literary scene. It pledged that the store, scheduled to open its doors in summer or early autumn, will feature Topping’s signature rolling library ladders, with enough shelf space to accommodate 70,000 titles.

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And the company said the outlet will offer complimentary tea and coffee, as well as “plenty of friendly, bookish advice”, adding that it will host novelists, politicians and chefs in an opening programme to be announced later this year.

Robert Topping, who worked with Tim Watersone in the early days of bookshop chain Waterstones, opened the first Topping store with wife Louise in Ely, Cambridgeshire in 2002. It followed that with outlets in Bath in 2007, and St Andrews in 2014. The firm said a team of “brilliantly independently-minded booksellers” runs each of its shops.