A Short History
Way back in the mid-1980s, Oxford had an alternative bookshop called EOA. Many people used to come in asking things like: Is there anywhere I can buy organic veggies? Is there a local support group for people with cancer? Do you know any good acupuncturists? Ruth and Antony (who are still running it, now called The Inner Bookshop and moved to Magdalen Road) started to keep a ring-binder with this information in it. They had the bright idea to publish this as a small ‘alternative to the Yellow Pages’. Initially called The Oxford Grapevine, with Green Pages as the subtitle, this little booklet grew and grew each year.
After a few years it was taken on by Dave Billings, who did a fantastic job of enlarging it and expanding it to cover many new areas.
After this came Jane & Philip Rogers who put ten years of energy into Green Pages. We first worked with them as the designers of the 2004 edition. When they decided to leave Oxford for pastures new, they offered to sell us the publishing rights. We ummed and ahhed for, ooh, at least 15 minutes, before enthusiastically agreeing.
Our company is called Lumpy Lemon, and in our time as publishers we have redesigned the entire directory to make it easier to use, introduced environmentally friendly printing, a full colour cover and competitions. We are now working hard to expand the content to include many more businesses around the county, and to make Green Pages a useful tool for businesses as well as individuals.
The most exciting development is forming a partnership with Mark and Karen from Bubble, to produce Bristol & Bath Green Pages. Visit www.bristolgreenpages.co.uk to read more about it.
And the future… who knows? Maybe Green Pages covering other towns, cities and regions across the country…