Foyles
113–119 Charing Cross Road Soho London WC2H 0EB
Time was when Foyles was known as London’s largest but worst organised bookshop, with an eccentric old owner and a truly bizarre system for payment. In recent years the shop has joined the 21st century, and is a beautiful bookstore by any criteria. Yet it still feels like a relic from another era. How often these days do you find a new bookshop that’s filled with titles you’ve never seen anywhere else? The sheer size of Foyles helps, of course – five floors give it space to hold over 200,000 books – but the expertise and tenacity of its staff is probably its greatest strength. The owners have opened five other branches in the last few years, but this flagship store is by the far the biggest and best. It also holds a roomy, relaxing café, which puts on live jazz courtesy of the in-house Ray’s Jazz music shop and has free wi-fi.
