in 1951, philip and pamela joseph founded the very first exclusive books as a second-hand bookshop in king george street, johannesburg. in 1973 exclusive books moved to pretoria street, hillbrow, and became the first flagship store. the hillbrow store closed in 1993 and within the same year, the hyde park store became the group's flagship. it was the largest bookshop of its kind in southern africa at the time.