Inside York's New Poetry Pharmacy
Broken heart? Winter blues?
on prescription. Enter The Poetry Pharmacy.
As writers we may be biased, but there’s no underestimating the power of words. Poetry evokes emotional responses and encourages imaginative thinking, so perhaps we all need a bit of poetry in our lives.
The Poetry Pharmacy has been dispensing poetry since 2011, originally from the back of a vintage 1970s ambulance with co-founder Deb Alma in the role of ‘Emergency Poet’ at festivals, conferences, hospitals, libraries and schools. Deb’s an editor and poet. In the early days, the idea was to be a vehicle for poetry to be delivered to people who wouldn’t normally read or experience it.
‘I worked with some people with dementia to assist with communication and when I was doing that I saw just how profoundly poetry could change someone’s mood,’ says Deb. ‘But it’s bitesize too, you don’t have to read a whole novel. I just saw how it can make someone feel a bit better.’
This light-hearted and a little theatrical approach might seem whimsical, but has proved effective. ‘The Poetry Pharmacy bookshop came about because of that project,’ says Deb, and now it’s opening its third outpost. ‘Part bookshop, part apothecary’, The Poetry Pharmacy launched its flagship store in Bishop’s Castle in Shropshire, and a concession inside Lush Spa on London’s Oxford Street followed in 2023.
‘The bookshops are laid out by emotional state, so for example if you have a broken heart, you’d go to a specific shelf to find books on that subject,’ Deb explains. ‘It’s poetry, philosophy, psychology and general wellbeing books.’ There are sections for calm, comfort, joy and inspiration as well as wild remedies and first aid (poemcetamol for example – poetry in the form of pills). The pill capsules each contain a poetic extract on recycled paper. ‘Because it’s a mad idea, it was a bit of an experiment,’ says Deb. ‘We lived above and behind the shop, and it was just me doing it on my own at that time. But it worked! It got quite a lot of media attention.’
The concept has since gone viral and now York is getting The Poetry Pharmacy treatment. ‘We’re a tiny little business that started in the back of an ambulance and we just thought that York would be a lovely place for us to go,’ says Deb, but this is a bit of a homecoming too. ‘We have really good connections with York because my husband (and also partner in the business) lived and worked in York and went to school there, so York is his hometown in lots of ways. He’s always wanted to be in York, and we’ve also got really good friends in the area and in Yorkshire generally – lots of good, strong poetry connections. York itself has strong literary connections and obviously it’s a busy, beautiful town. It feels like the right place for us.’
The pharmacy in York will sell poetry, literary non-fiction and wellbeing gifts from 20 Coney Street, which has stood empty for a few years. ‘It was a Carphone Warehouse, even though it’s a medieval, Tudor building, and [inside] it’s a bit of a square box, so I wanted to bring it back to fit York better,’ says Deb. ‘It’ll look like a bit of an early Victorian apothecary but with books and literary gifts to make you feel better. It’s really different to a normal bookshop. There’ll be a dispensary at the back where people can get a personalised prescription of poems or recommendations for particular books. It’s also really important to us that people feel welcome.
‘Although it might not be open straight away, we will have a reading room where people can go and sit and read with a cup of tea or coffee. We also hope to run our poetry prescription consultations, like going to a pharmacist (you go and see a poetry pharmacist). We also want to do lots of literary events and wellbeing events – book clubs, reading groups, open mics, workshops – but that may come a bit later. Our hopes are that it is part of York’s literary community first and foremost. So the people that work there will be local and it’ll keep that independent feel about it. The connections to the place are really important to us.’
The Poetry Pharmacy’s third home, York’s Grade II*-listed building on Coney Street has its own poetry connection – The Oxford literary guide to the British Isles says famous poet Percy Bysshe Shelley stayed there in October 1811. ‘We found that out, and now we’re trying to get a blue plaque for the building,’ says Deb. The Poetry Pharmacy will open early in 2026.
Poetry Prescription: First Aid, £10
A pocket-sized hardback gift book with carefully curated ‘prescriptions’ compiled by Deb.
Broken Heart Pills (small), £9.95
Pill capsules, each containing a poetic extract on recycled paper.
Ten Poems About Walking, £6.95
A mini-anthology containing Wordsworth’s Old Man Travelling alongside contemporary poems about walking.
