Munro's Books is a large independent bookstore in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, located in a landmark heritage building on Government Street. It was founded in 1963 by Jim Munro and his then-wife Alice. Since Jim's retirement in 2014, the store has had no connection to the Munro family. The store celebrated its 50th anniversary in September 2013.[1]
Since 1984, the store has been located in downtown Victoria in the neo-classical Royal Bank Building with a 24 ft coffered ceiling, designed in 1909 for the Royal Bank of Canada by architect Thomas Hooper.[2] Munro's Books has been described by journalist Allan Fotheringham as "the most magnificent bookstore in Canada, possibly in North America."[3]
The store was founded in 1963 by Jim Munro and his first wife, Alice Munro, the 2013 Nobel Prize-winning short-story writer. At the start, its stock was mostly paperbacks.[2]