On Sunday evening, a cheque for £673.40 was presented to Newham Bookshop for its “Two Doors Down” crowdfunding appeal on behalf of  Clapton CFC and Walthamstow FC.

The total was raised by the 290 fans who came to our Friday night friendly on 12 October at Wadham Lodge after both clubs agreed to donate the proceeds.

Newham Bookshop is the only independent bookshop in CCFC’s home borough and has been serving the communities of east London for 40 years.

It was founded in 1978 to provide a source of books, education and play materials for the fledgling Newham Parents’ Centre, which for many years had its offices and teaching rooms upstairs.

Half of the shop, on Barking Road near the bottom of Green Street in Upton Park, remains dedicated to children’s books.

However, it also has a particular reputation for offering books on politics, local history and by black writers and for regularly taking authors into schools to read their books.

For many years, it has also provided bilingual dictionaries for each of the new communities that arrive in Newham.

Recently, its landlord decided to develop the upper floors of one half of the building that the bookshop occupies into offices, including one-third of the adult books area. This would have caused massive disruption.

However, the empty shop next door to its children’s section became available and so the bookshop plans to move the entire stock of books for adults two doors down to 743 Barking Road in time for Christmas.

In order to make this possible, Newham Bookshop needs to raise around £25,000 to cover new heating, lighting, power and fittings for the new premises.

Along with the donation from Clapton and Walthamstow supporters, Sunday’s launch event at the Wanstead Tap in Forest Gate raised around £3,000 from an auction of signed copies of books, generously donated by authors and publishers to kickstart the fundraising campaign.

To donate to the “Two Doors Down” campaign, visit https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/two-doors-down