Maesy Angelina never planned to open a bookshop, let alone one located on the second floor of a nearly abandoned market in South Jakarta.

“POST started as something completely unplanned,” Maesy says, laughing, when I meet her in early December. “It all happened in one or two hours; there was no planning whatsoever!”

Maesy, her partner Teddy and friend Steven were visiting Pasar Santa in Jakarta’s Senopati neighbourhood back in 2014, when the market was beginning its revitalisation, full of hip young folk opening up coffee stores, record stores and tiny hole-in-the-wall eateries. “We thought it looked really cool, and we wanted to be a part of it,” Maesy explains. “We thought it could be a really good opportunity for us and for other people in Jakarta to meet one another, so we thought we’d rent a space and make it a pop-up space.”

What began as a one-year experiment has now become a four-year endeavour, encompassing not only the original bookshop (which also underwent a major renovation and expansion halfway through its life), but also a collaboration with fellow independent bookshop Aksara and the development of a publishing house.

• Tags: Indonesia, Issue 14, Kate Walton, Maesy Angelina, POST