Last big bookshop of our lives?

After three years of building chaos on Charing Cross Road, the new Foyles opens tomorrow.

London’s landmark bookshop, 111 years old, will cover 37,000 feet of sales space across four storeys.

‘Bearing in mind what is going on in the market at the moment with Amazon, internet sales increasing and digital book sales rising, if we are going to stick around as a physical bricks and mortar store then we have to be more energetic and focused about what we are offering,’ said chairman Christopher Foyle. ‘The past 100 years have been a different time to what we are facing now. We have to diversify. If it was just about the building we would have closed the current store tomorrow and rented it to Sainsbury’s or Armani. But we wanted to invest in our future.’

This could be the last-chance saloon for dedicated readers. Get down there while stocks last.

photo (c) Lebrecht Music&Arts