Guernsey Kiosk: The Community Hub You Need To Know About

Guernsey Kiosk is a new grassroots space dedicated to reading and connection. Project founder Melissa Hardwick is shaping it into something refreshingly simple with an open invitation to pick up a free book as you pass by, stop for a quick chat, or stay a while and enjoy a moment of creativity.

 

 

Meet Melissa

With strong ties to the island through her grandparents, Melissa’s return to Guernsey feels like a natural fit on many levels. With happy memories of time spent here as a child, she moved over with her own young family in November 2024. Before that, she spent over a decade running an arts and health charity in North London, working alongside NHS practices to deliver creative support for patients.

“It was at the beginning stages of social prescribing,” she says. “GPs were able to signpost people to our services to help with waiting lists and give them something supportive while they were waiting for things like talking therapy.”

Everything was free and designed to be accessible, from art workshops and gardening projects to dance sessions and aromatherapy.

After having children, Melissa continued that work in a different way, running creative sessions for preschoolers and their parents in parks and community spaces across South East London.

“It was always about making things easy, free and accessible, and helping people connect to other support around them.”

That same ethos now sits at the heart of Guernsey Kiosk:  "I wanted to do something grassroots,” Melissa explains. “Where anyone can come in and just pick a book or make something, and be creative in whatever way they want.”

 

A Place to Pause

While Melissa has been volunteering with the Guernsey Literary Festival, helping to develop more community-based programming, the Kiosk is her own way of opening that experience up even further.

“A lot of the festival takes place in more formal settings,” she explains. “I wanted to create something informal. Somewhere people can just drop in.”

Inside, you’ll find a mix of books, simple creative activities and a growing programme of workshops. Think badge-making, paper crafts, notebook making, and soon, book conservation sessions in collaboration with the Priaulx Library. It’s all accessible, with no price point: “You can just come in and take part.”

Melissa is also encouraging writers and artists to use the space as a place to sit, think and create, whether that’s jotting down ideas, working on a project, or simply taking a quiet moment.

 

A Small Space with Big Potential

Set in one of the island’s busiest thoroughfares, the kiosk has the potential to reach people who might not actively seek out creative or literary spaces.

“It’s such a busy area,” Melissa says. “It feels like a place where you can really capture people, and gently signpost other things that are happening on the island.”

Alongside the kiosk, Melissa is also involved in wider community initiatives linked to the Year of Reading, from school podcast projects and care home visits to author sessions in unexpected settings, including the prison.

There are also plans for more “book spot” locations around the island, including The Bathing Pools and the airport, offering small moments of reading woven into everyday life.

 

Creating Joy in the Everyday

At its core, Guernsey Kiosk is built on something simple: the idea that these little things matter.

“As a parent, I know that even just having a box of books for a child is exciting,” Melissa says. “Anything that brings a little bit of joy or engagement is worthwhile to me.”

Looking ahead, her hope is that the project might grow, perhaps even becoming a more permanent feature of the island’s community spaces.

“My dream would be for it to be seen as a success and for there to be more spaces like this, with different things happening.”

For now though, Melissa is quietly doing her thing: offering a friendly moment of calm, creativity and connection in the middle of the everyday… and re-directing French tourists to the actual bus information centre!

 

Drop In

The Guernsey Kiosk is open Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 9.30am - 2.00pm at the Bus Terminal in St Peter Port

Workshops and activities will be added throughout the coming weeks. Follow along on Instagram for updates.