PANTILES bookseller Stephen Marshall is expanding around the corner after buying The Secondhand Bookshop, in Nevill Street.

Mr Marshall, who opened the Pantiles Bookshop, in Tunbridge Wells, in 2006, said: "My current shop is bursting at the seams and, with the likelihood we will move to a smaller shop on the other side of the Pantiles, it seemed a good time to launch another shop."

Nationwide retailer Jack Wills, which has more than three dozen clothing and homeware shops across the country, has applied for planning permission to convert both the Pantiles Bookshop and the floors above into a new outlet. If permission is granted, Mr Marshall plans to move the bookshop to the vacant former Secret Games Shop opposite.

The bookseller, who originally traded from the Corn Exchange, said: "I hope the application is successful, because a flagship business of this kind is exactly what the area needs."

Mr Marshall is currently selling off existing stock in his new shop, but plans to reopen as the Beau Nash Bookshop, with high quality books, antique maps and prints.

He said: "Tunbridge Wells is still a valuable centre in the South East for secondhand and specialist bookstores, despite competition from online sellers. In my view, people will always wish to see and examine decent secondhand books, which is why I have been prepared to take on the risk of a new shop."