Deluge of support for flooded Foyles

Foyles has been inundated with support on social media after the "severe" flooding of its basement which has seen it closed since Monday (17th October). 

The store, which has been "taking it day by day" all this week, confirmed on Twitter it will reopen at 12.30 today (Friday 21st).

Books in the store are "unharmed", according to Foyles, but, it updated customers yesterday on Twitter, "The basement flood was quite severe. [There is] a lot of water to get rid of before we can get the power back on".

The problem was caused by a failed sprinkler system, according to Simon Heafield, head of marking and brand development, who said on Tuesday electrical problems had to be resolved before it could reopen. 

One reader, Mari Troskie, tweeted on Monday, "Watching the @Foyles flood response and it's clear bookshops and the people in them are just the greatest. Bookshops for President."

In addition to hearing from countless book-loving regulars, the store has also received encouragement from fellow booksellers and from publishers. Both Atlantic Books and Michael O'Mara both tweeted its support on Wednesday, offering suppllies if needed, while Verso Books took to Twitter to invite staff round for coffee and Picador bid it to "get well soon".

Galley Beggar Press expressed its solidarity that, "a bad day for @Foyles is a bad day for all of us". Other well-wishers from the trade have included Canongate, Serpent's Tail, No Exit Press, Nick Hern Press, and CAMRA Books, among others including Unbound author Nikesh Shukla.

Foyles on Tuesday had to relocate a scheduled event with The Bookshop Band to Browns in Covent Garden. "You (the flood) can't stop the music!" its own social media team rallied. It also recommended its "scaled down (but just as lovely)" store at the Royal Festival Hall to London customers, as well as its shops in London Waterloo Station and Westfield Stratford City.

Foyles reopened its Charing Cross Road branch, rumoured to have cost £25m, in June 2014.