About Us
Instagram, Facebook and Twitter: @typesetspace
About Typeset
Typeset is a volunteer-led, non-profit social enterprise that takes the form of an independent arts bookshop and coworking space in Rotherham town centre. We aim to support creativity and social connection, which have become increasingly vital as retail habits have changed and Covid has so greatly impacted the world. By promoting social connection, we hope to benefit a community that has lost such uniquely quiet and semi-social spaces that offer space for reflection and inspiration.
You might visit to buy one of our gorgeous vintage art books, to attend a workshop, or to settle down at one of our desks and do some work of your own. Typeset aims to be a community space for deep work and creative exploration. Our bookshop is a beautiful, cosy place for inspiration and collaboration, with a variety of art installations and workshops.
We are run by and for neurodivergent people, others facing mental health challenges or invisible disability, LGBTQ+ people and residents of an economically-deprived region with low cultural participation and have found our work benefits these groups as well as older people and those who have struggled with finding a place outside their homes as a result of the pandemic.
Services
We are primarily second-hand and have a vast collection of vintage arts books and also sell many fiction books and poetry collections as well as classics must-haves.
Other than providing a second-life for books we also provide a coworking space which have become increasingly important post-Covid as often we need to work somewhere that isn’t our home and they can also create stronger community links than traditional workplaces. To further this end, we also provide vintage typewriters for rent to aid a distraction-free writing experience and we sometimes make things even cosier with some jazz, folk, ambient, and post-rock music.
Aims and Values
Our vision is to fulfil Rotherham’s need for a cosy, inspiring space at street level, to encounter new ideas and do creative work.
Our core values are Creativity, Empowerment and Cosiness.
We aim to
- Improve mental wellbeing in our provision of a quiet yet sociable workspace
- Contribute to a more vibrant and active town centre
- Support cultural participation in Rotherham through a bespoke venue for arts and creativity
- Connect Rotherham internationally via live-streamed events and zine distribution
- Build on local strengths and also fill a gap for young adult and young professional spaces to engage with the written and spoken word
- Help drive regeneration in a key retail location for independent businesses
- Foster dialogue and community around the new educational and cultural opportunities that have been developing in Rotherham town centre
Our Benefit & the Community
Working towards our aims gives us a great sense of pride, but more importantly hope for the future of Typeset's aims and community.
Research suggests that coworking spaces are beneficial not just to individuals but also to the wider community by facilitating vital socialisation alongside remote working. Additionally, we have hosted many workshops and events at Typeset to support cultural and social participation in Rotherham as well as connect the local community internationally.
Thanks to Rotherham RELOAD, last year we were able to run various initiatives, including:
- A slow-reading group that facilitated feminist reading in a dyslexia-friendly format
- A series of tabletop storytelling games where players collaboratively built better worlds after experiencing major collective upheaval,
- An in conversation event where the guest speaker spoke on neurodiversity and fantasy world building,
- The creation and distribution of collage art kits for those who could not access arts and culture in person due to the pandemic
- and a performance art installation, using vintage typewriters.
We really look forward to continuing to host such events and are currently starting a podcast that will run alongside our workshops and speaker events, featuring interviews with the artists, writers, etc. who we work with on our events.
