West Kent Local News
The Royal Star Arcade in Maidstone, where The Cozy Chapter has opened at Unit 32. Image credit: Les Chatfield / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
The Cozy Chapter: Maidstone's New Books-and-Coffee Spot With Gong Baths and Comedy Nights
Unit 32 of the Royal Star Arcade, off Maidstone High Street, is now The Cozy Chapter - a new independent bookshop and café that's packed a comedy night, a book club and a gong bath into its first few weeks of trading.
Books, coffee and a lot more
The shop opened in late September, and its first comedy night - run by Out of Bounds Comedy in "an intimate area above the bookstore," doors at 7.30pm for an 8.30pm start, tickets £18 including a free drink - landed a full house on 26 September, according to a post from the team on the Maidstone Local Business Hub Facebook group, which thanked everyone who came and promised more to follow; a second date with the same promoter is already booked for Saturday 7 November. A book club is also running, with members getting a discount on their first read, and a Gong Bath sound meditation session with Phoenix Gongs is booked in for Thursday 29 October at 8pm, tickets from around £20. Early Google reviews put it at 4.8 out of 5, with visitors singling out the setting and the welcome.
Who's behind it
Companies House records show the business trades as The Cozy Chapter 1 Ltd, incorporated on 16 March 2026 and registered to the Royal Star Arcade address, with Elise Cade, 25, from Maidstone, as sole director. The arcade itself has its own small piece of local history: built on the site of the old Royal Star Hotel, it's one of Maidstone town centre's quasi-Victorian shopping arcades, a covered row of independent shopfronts under a glass roof rather than a modern mall unit.
Finding it
The Cozy Chapter is at Unit 32, Royal Star Arcade, High Street, Maidstone, ME14 1JL - inside the arcade off the High Street, a short walk from the Fremlin Walk and Chequers shopping centres.
