Music mixes happily with books at Parsons

Parsons Books and Music in Wellington is an icon book store in an historic setting. Or should that be the other way around? The Wellington bookstore is housed in the ground floor of the Ernst Plischke designed building in Lambton Quay, rated New Zealand’s first Modernist office building, now with heritage status.

But Parsons is an even longer lived Wellington institution, begun by Roy Parsons in 1948,upstairs near Cable Car Lane, later in Woodward Street before moving to the newly opened Massey House, as it was then known, in 1958.

Parsons and Plischke were friends, and the original interior of the book store was laid out by Plischke, and who, together with Roy (pictured above), designed the shelving, chose the flooring and did the styling. “It looked great!” says Roy’s son Julian, who joined the bookshop in ‘59. “Of course, the stock was sparsely shelved, because with virtually no New Zealand book publishing in those days and imported books being subject to import restrictions, there were not a lot of books to shelve.”

Parsons rapidly became a Wellington institution in its own right with its modern look and own coffee bar on the mezzanine level.

But as prosperity grew (and books increased) the building’s owners trebled the rent in 1968. Parsons had no way of meeting the increase, and moved most of the bookshop into nearby Mason’s Lane. This left a small paperback shop in the front of Massey House. They were in Mason’s Lane ten years, but with the old premises converted into offices and again vacant, negotiations to return to Lambton Quay were successful.

A wall had been built, dividing the shop into two parts, so the full Modernist look has never been restored. But the store still flourishes.

Roy Parsons of course fathered a bookselling dynasty: Julian and his sister Beatrice are the current owners, with their brother Roger, and his wife Helen, establishing Parsons Bookshop in Auckland.

Music joined books in store during the late 70’s, with a small selection of classical music LP’s imported “mainly for ourselves” notes Julian.

But the big push for music came in ’83 with those revolutionary CDs. Julian recalls the early clean and sharp CD recordings, but edgy, as the musicians and sound engineers had to relearn how to record in digital sound. But the store’s stock grew rapidly. “It took about two years to settle down, then it just went boom!” That in turn paved the way later for DVDs which had a much faster acceptance.

Parsons Books and Music CD and DVD ranges are closely linked to classical music, something both Beatrice and Julian grew up with, and also jazz. For DVDs the range widens from opera and classical music to include “good drama and good movies” with the original Brideshead Revisited TV series and Simon Schama’s The Power of Art, Pride and Prejudice and Kenneth Clark’s Civilization.

Music movers of the moment are Hilary Hahn’s Sibelius Violin Concerto, singers Simon O’Neill and Teddy Tahu Rhodes “along with anything on the Concert FM chart.”

But neither book nor music lovers march on an empty stomach and Parsons coffee shop run by Helen Bryce is appreciated for its varied menu all cooked on the premises. Sandwiches on offer are not always the same, although egg-and-chives is a constant by popular request. Bryce is into the Ladies A Plate style of cooking, so there are butterfly cakes once a week!

So which is the more dominant, music or books?

‘We had pressure on space,” says Julian “So CDs are very neat and space saving. Music is consistent and easy to group and can be spine out. We have at least 16,000 in stock at all times so there is more music than books – but books get pride of place.”

Books are displayed in the front half of the store, with CDs in the rear and jazz, opera and DVDs sharing the coffee shop space above. Customers coming in for a CD have to walk through books, consequently there’s often an add-on book sale. Currently the split between the categories is 60 percent of the business in music and 40 percent in books, although books showed appreciable growth in the past year.

Beatrice Parsons, “the musical one” according to Julian, has nevertheless ended up in charge of books at Parsons Books and Music as well as running the shop floor. She trained as an architectural draftsman, but like most of the Parsons family of her generation has ended up being in the book trade most of her life.

As with most independent booksellers, Beatrice selects stock over a wide and eclectic range that appeals to her customers. “People tell me they like to come in and find well selected stock. There is also a move I think to supporting locally owned and operated book stores.”

Current book bestsellers are the Bill Bryson edited Seeing Further: The Story of Science and the Royal Society, Solar Ian McEwen, The Book Thief Markus Zusak, The Spy Game Georgina Harding, Measuring the World Daniel Kehlman and Francis Pound’s The Invention of New Zealand Art and National Identity.

For New Zealand Music Month there’s a window featuring local composers, musicians and artists.

“It is a lovely coupling,” says Julian Parsons in conclusion. “Coffee with music and books, providing something of value to the community.”