Deserted Foyles, London, April 2016
The top of Charing Cross Road is still undergoing a lot of building work, largely due to the forthcoming new railway line, and I did feel a little sad to see the deserted Foyles bookshop building. This has been a regular haunt for me, since my student days; a reliable source of Russian fiction, a Polish Linguaphone course, and piles of travel guides. Even its antiquated payment method was a pleasant quirk. The store was founded in 1903 by brothers William and Gilbert Foyle, first opening on Charing Cross Road in 1906 and moving to this now empty shop in 1929.
Bye Byes can be a bit blue, but the old shop signs have been given a cheery manipulation and, better still, a short wander down the road takes you to the replacement Foyles, which opened in 2014. The welcoming new store is brightly laid out, bountifully stocked, and serving gorgeous cake in its 5th floor cafe.
Foyle’s 37,000 square feet of retail space holds 200,000 different titles spread over four miles of shelves – the striking equivalent of stacking books along one bank of the Thames from Battersea Power Station to the Tower of London!
I was a very happy bunny by the time I had devoured my slice of delicious carrot cake and acquired yet more books from this award winning independent bookstore.
Foyles, 107 Charing Cross Road, London, WC2H 0DT
Copyright Debbie Smyth, 20 April 2016
Part of Fun Foto Challenge
Travel with Intent 
Oh, I love bookstores. I’ll remember this one the next time I am in London.
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I think I visited there back in the 90’s and loved that store and especially it’s quirky payment method. I’m glad there is a new store to visit on my next trip to London.
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You will love it. Plenty of events and lots of extras like sheet music, DVDs, maps, CAKES
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Your photo make me smile which makes me happy!! 😀
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A deserted bookstore is a tragedy, but I’m glad there’s a replacement and I love the “O, Yes” left behind. Here in Naperville, Illinois, we have a wonderful, albeit much smaller, independent bookstore, Anderson’s (http://www.andersonsbookshop.com/). They have author visits as well as lots of other events and are a blessing to our city!
janet
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Yes, we’re always lucky to have a good store like that. I often say that cash will never die, and books won’t either! Kindles can be useful but not a replacement☺
On Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 3:13 PM, Travel with Intent wrote:
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Kindles can be essential when traveling with intent to places where there are no English books a/o no way to carry lots of books. I’ll be taking mine when I head for France in July and I’ll be very thankful for it. On the whole, however, the death of books is certainly not likely, at least while all of us are around!
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I agree wholeheartedly!
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I was just talking about libraries in my latest post…
This one must be very inviting!
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Sounds like a wonderful place!
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Hard to find independent shops these days! and this is a brilliant example of one
On Wed, Apr 20, 2016 at 1:51 PM, Travel with Intent wrote:
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