The central shop was relocated in mid 2005 from its longstanding location in Fyshwick, Canberra to the Kings Highway, Bungendore; it is a very large shop located next to the Leatherworks, and is just up the highway towards Braidwood from the Bungendore Woodworks. The shop is part of a cluster of arts/craft/book/shops located in that area offering an interesting walk around for the local resident and visitor.
Winchbooks was started by the Reverend Ralph Lawton in an alley off Geelong Street in Canberra. At the end of 1976 Mr Lawton transferred his expanding stock of books to a new location in Wollongong street. In October 1979 the business became Lawtons Books Pty Ltd, the shares of which were held by Ralph Lawton, Ron Winch and Colin Cummins. At that time the floor space was doubled and the volume of books for sale also increased substantially. By the mid 1980’s the shop was owned by Ron Winch, and renamed Winchbooks. It was later owned by Naomi Henry and Janet Uhr who moved the shop to Kembla Street. The shop was purchased by Bob Coombs in 2000. A Braidwood branch was opened in 2001, and Tarcutta in 2003. A Bungendore shop was opened at Easter 2004, and the business relocated to Bungendore in 2005. The above means that Winchbooks has been operating as a second hand bookshopbusiness for over 30 continuous years — a proud record!