a commercial landlord [...] somebody converts the place into a small restaurant, coffee shop
Charing Cross Road in London is a prime example - used to have a whole bunch of small book (and other) shops. Now it has a whole bunch of pastry, coffee[1], sweet etc. shops and a couple of small bookshops (who probably don't have long to go, really.)
(Also has a huge bookshop, Foyles, but that's a soulless corporate monstrosity.)
[1] I am particularly aggrieved about the nicer of the two Any Amount Of Books being turned into a squashed coffee shop.
Foyles was interestingly weird but eventually got bought by Waterstones and became what it is now. I’d still say it’s better than some, just not by enough.
The expensive building changes to the Chinatown side didn’t help the smaller shops and it’s clear as their leases end the shops are closing and it’ll be like everywhere else with a generic mash of forgettable places.
Had a friend who worked in foyles packing mail outs. He used to get his jollies writing author sigs and dedications on the books.
Married a bookseller who worked at skoob, Sicilian avenue. The owner had worked next door to 84 charing cross road. We avoid second hand bookshops now, you can grow out of them.
Everyone raves about hay. The QT is on petersfield and the honour box system.
Petersfield is a wonder. The way it unfolds. I saw a full folio copy of Dante's Divine Comedy with Doré's woodcuts in there for £80... three decades ago? I'm still kicking myself that I didn't buy it.
Same here for a bookshop in Brisbane with pugin architectural drawings, and a bookshop in York which had Mervyn Peake original pencil drawing of his son for £300 in 1981
Same with Denmark Street with instruments. When the premises are worth millions it's not surprisingly that minority shops cannot break even. They either need to be owned by the very rich as hobbies or will be bought up by chains. I think Stanfords is still there nr Covent Garden though, that was always a favorite a in some ways an only option for expedition planning pre internet/google earth.
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Charing Cross Road in London is a prime example - used to have a whole bunch of small book (and other) shops. Now it has a whole bunch of pastry, coffee[1], sweet etc. shops and a couple of small bookshops (who probably don't have long to go, really.)
(Also has a huge bookshop, Foyles, but that's a soulless corporate monstrosity.)
[1] I am particularly aggrieved about the nicer of the two Any Amount Of Books being turned into a squashed coffee shop.
Foyles was interestingly weird but eventually got bought by Waterstones and became what it is now. I’d still say it’s better than some, just not by enough.
The expensive building changes to the Chinatown side didn’t help the smaller shops and it’s clear as their leases end the shops are closing and it’ll be like everywhere else with a generic mash of forgettable places.
Had a friend who worked in foyles packing mail outs. He used to get his jollies writing author sigs and dedications on the books.
Married a bookseller who worked at skoob, Sicilian avenue. The owner had worked next door to 84 charing cross road. We avoid second hand bookshops now, you can grow out of them.
Everyone raves about hay. The QT is on petersfield and the honour box system.
Petersfield is a wonder. The way it unfolds. I saw a full folio copy of Dante's Divine Comedy with Doré's woodcuts in there for £80... three decades ago? I'm still kicking myself that I didn't buy it.
Same here for a bookshop in Brisbane with pugin architectural drawings, and a bookshop in York which had Mervyn Peake original pencil drawing of his son for £300 in 1981
Damn. A reputed Mervyn Peake life drawing sold at auction in the UK in the past few weeks and I was severely tempted. No spare pennies unfortunately.
It sounds like you and I have very similar tastes. I've been amusing myself recently by asking AIs to draw Gormenghast. None of them get the scale.
Same with Denmark Street with instruments. When the premises are worth millions it's not surprisingly that minority shops cannot break even. They either need to be owned by the very rich as hobbies or will be bought up by chains. I think Stanfords is still there nr Covent Garden though, that was always a favorite a in some ways an only option for expedition planning pre internet/google earth.
Moved to a smaller space a few yards from where it was. Lost its charm in the process, for me, much like Foyles.
The redevelopment of TCR gutted that area. The Intrepid Fox is long gone, too.
I used to go to the Intrepid Fox all the time and the 12 bar :-(
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Intrepid_Fox