Julian 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.

The cultural relevance and intellect of a city can always be judged by the health of its independent bookselling community, and on that criteria alone Wellington is
not just the country’s political capital but the undisputed literary capital as well.

Not only does it have a wide and diverse range of independent bookshops, it also has the best, with vastly more industry awards over the last decade being won by
Wellington bookshops than anywhere else in New Zealand.