Foyles' new bookstore: Charing Cross Road is to gain a sparkling destination flagship

An ambitious new Foyles flagship may help ward off the death of the novel for a while yet, writes Holly Kyte

With so much gloomy prophesying about the future of the printed book going around, it’s heartening that the opening of a new bookshop can still be greeted with a real fanfare. But then, this is not just any old London bookshop.

Legendary bookseller Foyles is marking the launch of its swanky new flagship store with a three-week cultural festival stuffed with enticing events, from celebrity openings, talks, debates, readings and signings, to concerts, screenings and workshops. Kicking off on 11 June, Foyles Grand Opening Festival boasts a starry line-up, including some of our greatest and most popular living writers. Hilary Mantel, Sarah Waters and Sebastian Faulks will no doubt draw big crowds, while Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman, Michael Rosen, Meg Rosoff, Anthony Horowitz and Lauren Child will get the kids and teens excited.

Add in poet Simon Armitage, classicist Mary Beard, journalists Mark Kermode and Hadley Freeman, crime writers PD James and Val McDermid, chef Yotam Ottolenghi, Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and national treasure Michael Palin and the programme is looking downright unmissable. Tickets, unsurprisingly, are selling out dizzyingly fast.

Currently residing at 113–117 Charing Cross Road, Foyles has always been something of a mecca for the culturally curious. With five storeys dedicated to every topic you can dream up, it’s the kind of place book lovers – as well as film and music lovers – can lose themselves in for hours. And the new store – just next door at number 107 – has been created with this very concept in mind.

The idea was to create the ultimate ‘bookshop for the 21st century’; one that won’t be just a bookshop, but a must-visit cultural hub and one of the 'places to go'. The finished store is still under wraps, but with Art Deco architecture, a cathedral-like atrium, specially designed events spaces, top-floor café and exhibition gallery, and of course vinyl emporium Ray’s Jazz, it’s set to be spectacular. In fact, Culture Whisper thinks this might just be the most exciting bookshop ever built.

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