Waterstones Fleet Street and High Holborn to close

Waterstones is to close two of its London-based stores for good on Christmas Eve in a bid to further manage the size of its estate.

The Fleet Street and High Holborn branches of Waterstones will close after the last day of Christmas trading. Altogether 10 staff will be affected by the move, but Waterstones spokesman Jon Howells said: "As usual we will attempt to redeploy the staff to other shops."

Waterstones managing director James Daunt recently said he may look to open up shops in new locations which are not served by bookshops, but only if the chain records a successful Christmas and only once he gets "our house in order" with the estate.

Speaking last week to The Bookseller, Daunt said: "We will continue to adjust the portfolio. There is still some duplication in some areas and some shops are too big, but we'll also look to open new stores. If we have a good Christmas, this should create the resources to do that."

Since Daunt has been in charge of Waterstones, the estate has decreased from 297 to 288 shops, including the latest two planned closures.