Foyles Charing Cross flooded again

Foyles' flagship Charing Cross branch has been flooded for the second time in five weeks.

The branch, which first flooded on 17th October owing to a faulty sprinkler system in the basement, was yesterday (20th November) forced to close all but its ground floor and opened late at 1pm. Today (21st November) the store remains open but some areas of the shopfloor are "inaccessible" and the café is closed.

The latest flooding originated in the café on the top floor.

Simon Heafield, head of marking and brand development at Foyles, said: “This incident is unrelated to the last incident. This was caused by a pipe in the cafe, which has flooded on level five, which has dropped down the side of the building. There is some cosmetic damage, and there has been some loss of stock, but it has not had the same impact as it had last time. Most of the rest of the shop is open.”

Foyles Twitter account has been keeping customers up to date and said staff would retrieve books for customers on the closed floor.

"We're very sorry to say that, owing to a flood, only the ground floor at Charing Cross Rd will be open to customers today," Foyles tweeted yesterday morning. "If the book you're looking for is on another floor staff will do their utmost to retrieve it for you. We're doing everything we can to get back to normal. We'd like to apologise to anyone who was planning a trip to Foyles today."

It added an hour later: "Thanks for bearing with us *again*. We're very glad to be open, and hope to be fully back to normal very soon."

The store was last month inundated with sympathy online from well-wishers including publishers when it was shut for four consecutive days.