Book Barn on Ferry — Woolston
A secondhand bookshop in Woolston, Christchurch. Part of the Greater Christchurch secondhand bookshops directory — see also our NZ used-book price guide.
No rights-cleared photo yet — Mathew’s phone photos welcome. Open the map pin for the street location.
About
Book Barn on Ferry is Christchurch’s most extreme secondhand book experience: a permanent book-fair atmosphere on Ferry Road in Woolston, stacked with banana boxes and aisles that stretch into happy chaos. It’s an offshoot of the Chertsey Book Barn on the highway toward Ashburton.
Come here for volume and surprise, not for a quiet alphabetised hunt. Spinoff ranked it number one in its Christchurch secondhand roundup precisely because of that pure fossicking energy — some days you leave empty-handed; some days you walk out with an unbelievable stash. Sections exist under their own logic, so genre fans can still target areas once you’ve found your bearings.
Pair it with a calmer stop nearby (Steadfast used to share this precinct; Smith’s at The Tannery is close). Open daily 9am–5pm. No public phone listing; Facebook and the public email are the usual contact channels.
Price tip: Book-fair style pricing — typically $2–5 a book. Bring cash and time.
What you’ll find
Mountains of donated and remaindered stock at book-fair prices — fiction, obscure non-fiction, dictionaries, art books, and whatever arrived in today’s boxes.
Practical info
- Address
- 374 Ferry Road, Woolston, Christchurch 8023
- Hours
- Daily 9am–5pm
Email listed publicly as bookbarnonferry@gmail.com. Check Facebook for updates.
Visitor notes & reviews
“Ranked first in Spinoff’s Chch roundup — permanent book fair energy at $2–5 a book.”
2025-01 · The Spinoff
“r/chch locals have literally titled threads calling the Ferry Road bookshops the best.”
2024-12 · Reddit r/chch