It all began in a room at 15 College Square East, Belfast, in 1926, to combat German Rationalism and Modernism. As the work grew the manager, Rev. WJ Grier, sourced Reformed books from USA and when they became hard to procure during and after the war, the shop grew as a distribution hub for the United Kingdom.
In the mid-20th century, before the advent of publishers like The Banner of Truth, the shop provided support for men in all denominations who treasured the reformed faith. Although severely damaged twice during the Northern Ireland 'troubles' the shop continued to operate.
Today, an extensive and competitively priced stock, including children's books, and a large second-hand department, are available in our Belfast shop.
The latest development at EBS began in January 2026 in the form of the John Gowan Collection.
John Gowan, a farmer for 30 years and an elder at Erne West Evangelical Presbyterian Church, was called home to be with the Lord in February 2024.
In his twenties John discovered reformed books and grew to love and value these writings for the rest of his life. He frequently visited the Evangelical Book Shop in Belfast in the days when John Grier was the manager. The rapidly increasing amount of books in the family home and John’s voracious reading naturally gave way to starting a business to sell reformed literature under the name ‘Gowan Books’ in around 1991.
For the rest of John’s life his book business was his main ministry and way of serving the Lord. From almost the most westerly part of the UK, John’s books were sent to as far afield as Europe, the USA and even Singapore.
Around a year after John's death the Evangelical Book Shop was approached by the family to see if we can take on the remaining stock of Gowan Books and to carry on John's work.
With over 85,000 second-hand books to process, we estimate that this will be at least a five year project for us to work our way through.
**MAKE SURE TO KEEP AN EYE OUT ON THE JOHN GOWAN SECTION OF OUR WEBSITE AS 100's OF TITLES ARE ADDED EVERY THURSDAY AND FRIDAY.**
As a vital part of our commitment to meet the current needs of the wider church, we are also providers of conference bookstalls throughout the UK. We are delighted to be able to partner with some of the largest Reformed and Confessional conferences in the UK, such as: IPC Catalyst, Ligonier, Westminster Seminary UK, and NIMA.
The Trustees, managers and staff have a clear vision to provide Christian resources which accord with the Westminster standards. "By Honour and Dishonour - the Story of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church", published in 2016, gives a fuller picture of our history and development.
We hope to benefit ministers, teachers, leaders, and congregations by providing access to Christian resources which are biblically faithful, Christ-honouring, and of theological and practical benefit to the Church and her members.
In order to achieve this objective, we offer Bibles along with books that are in accordance with the confessions of the Reformation. Our resources will not only feed the intellect, but stir up godly thoughts and affections. Therefore, we stock numerous Bibles and an extensive range of resources from consistently evangelical publishers, such as:
- Banner of Truth
- Christian Focus Publications
- Crossway
- Evangelical Press
- Good Book Company
- IVP
- Matthias Media
- Presbyterian and Reformed
- Reformation Heritage Books
- Reformation Trust
- Soli Deo Gloria
- along with selected orthodox titles from other major UK and US publishers.
We also provide a range of resources for teaching Sunday Schools, magazines such as Evangelicals Now, Evangelical Times, Banner of Truth, TableTalk, and devotional and daily reading materials.
Currently we operate one physical location in Belfast, Northern Ireland (our Edinburgh shop, previously known as Mound Books, having closed in August 2026).
Evangelical Book Shop is an incorporated charity, reference NIC100560. Our VAT number is 253004800.