Due to open in November last year, the 3,100 sq ft store, created by design consultant Ian Yemm, was hit by construction difficulties because of its listed status.
The store has a stock of 40,000 books skewed towards travellers and fixturing has been kept at a low level to permit views of the whole shop. Aisles are wider than in traditional bookshops, for the ease of travellers with suitcases.
“The challenge was to fit everything in without ending up with a library,” said marketing and commercial director Vivienne Wordley. She added that the store has been given high sales targets and has the highest stock turn of any of its stores.
The design and build costs are about£500,000 – a figure likely to be dwarfed by its two-floor, 10,000 sq ft store opening at Westfield London in autumn.
Wordley said: “We want to grow the business, but we have to be very selective about where we go. This location made sense owing to the amazing footfall.”
She ruled out opening stores outside the capital for the time being. “We are a metropolitan London bookseller and that is what people know us for.”
No comments yet