Happy Valley Fitzroy

Happy Valley is the kind of store you walk into and wish you owned everything in there – books, homewares, records, accessories, design-type gifts. Since opening in 2013, it’s been a beloved fixture of Smith Street. 

Originally located a few doors down on the opposite side of the road, the store’s new location – still on Smith Street – is housed inside a 140-year-old heritage-listed building. High ceilings reveal exposed beams and a slanted timber roof.

The new store is a step-up in space and titles to browse. Brimming bookshelves contain independent and unusual releases spanning ten different genres, including graphic novels, music, humour, art, food, non-fiction and classic novels. Find Andrew Durham’s Making Marie Antoinette – the next in Sofia Coppola’s art books; Bar Brutal, a tome on Barcelona’s cult wine bar; and more titled by Jonathan Ames, Gary Baseman, Richard Brautigan, Chuck Klosterman, and Mark Ryden to name a few.

Then there are the records; a sunny, yellow wall displays vinyl from the likes of Spoon, The Shins, Laura Marling, Sade and Ryan Adams. Find Australian exclusives, including Phoebe Bridgers’s Lost Weekend and This Is Lorelei’s The Singer In My Bandare. There are more than 1000 brand-new titles from around the globe, spanning jazz, soul, hip-hop and electronica.