West End

West End's Avid Reader runs a bookclub with Bec and Jane, stocks literary journals alongside new releases, and has taken a public stance through its "Readers and Writers Against Genocide" initiative. The politics are on the shelf, not just the walls. There's a café onsite — reason enough to stay longer than planned.

Part nursery, part aquarium, set in a converted warehouse near the West End Markets a kilometre from Brisbane's centre. Indoor and outdoor plants, succulents and aquatic species share the floor with fish, pond supplies, terrariums, pots and kokedama, and the shop runs workshops on terrariums, miniature gardens and ceramics with local makers. A characterful inner-city stop for plants and the gear to keep them alive. Open seven days.