As someone who loves travelling and exploring almost as much as she loves books, I wanted to start incorporating more travel stuff into my blog. This started with my Amberica posts, and will continue when I write about my adventures in Germany, but I really wanted to start a feature that combined both books and travel, rather than focussing on travel alone. And so, World of Bookshops was born. It’s not the most creative name for a feature, but I had a lot of trouble coming up with something that fit, so this will have to do!
This time, I wanted to talk to you about Foyles. It’s a pretty well known store, and I don’t think it needs any publicity, but I was in Leicester Square recently and I just had to take a quick walk up the road to go and take some photos. And also buy some books.
To give you a little bit of history, Foyles was founded by two brothers back in 1903, making the business a whopping 111 years old this year. It changed hands a few times, and also changed location, but that didn’t deter people from visiting and shopping at the store. In true British fashion, one of the owners (the daughter of one of the original brothers) started hosting literary luncheons which many literary figures and members of various royal families attended.
Aside from the main shop at Charing Cross Road, a few other branches have also been opened, most notably the two at Westfield shopping centre and also one at Waterloo station. Back in 2001, a feminist bookshop called Silver Moon Bookshop was incorporated into Foyles to save it from complete closure, which is pretty awesome.
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