Schoolchildren have backed a campaign to save an independent bookshop, which has been lodged for listed status.

Sisters from Kew Green Preparatory School have started their own petition to save the Kew Bookshop, which has been threatened with closure after its landlord submitted a plan to double the retail space.

Despite a campaign from the bookshop itself, which has gained almost 1,500 signatures, young fans of the shop have got 350 signatures attached to their own petition.

Kim Shaw, mother of Isla, 9, and Spencer, 7, who started the second petition, said: “When I told them what was happening to the shop they both started crying.

“They wanted to know what they could do to help because they have been going there their whole lives.

“They thought if the adults were signing a petition then it would be nice if the kids could have one too.

“Their target was 25 signatures so they have done really well.”

Bookshop owner Isla Dawes said: “The support locally has been brilliant. The kids have started their own petition – it was their own idea because they wanted to start something themselves.

“They go to the bookshop every week and it is a part of their life.

“They wanted to get behind it and it is really sweet.”

As well as drumming up support for the campaign, activists have applied for the shop, which has a unique wooden frontage, to gain listed status from English Heritage.

Robin Meltzer, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, applied for the status for the shop.

He said: “I am very worried that were this building to be lost, an awful precedent would be set for the other wooden buildings on the road, which are all owned by the same super landlord.

“If applying for statutory listing can help slow down the rush to demolish, then that can only be a good thing.”

The architect who submitted the plans for the bookshop, in Station Approach, said the work would improve the shop for everybody and the unique wooden frontage would not be touched.