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Foyles and Blackwell are teaming up for the first time to organise a joint Charing Cross Road "festival". The series of events, due to launch in June, is aimed at attracting customers to the bookshops following a 10% drop in footfall and book sales because of construction works for Network Rail's Crossrail project.
Foyles' flagship store and the Blackwell Charing Cross branch, the chain's biggest London store, have both been heavily affected by the Crossrail works programme, which has seen the main access route from Oxford Street cut off to shoppers while a major new railway link is built.
Foyles' chief executive Sam Husain said measures of footfall had found that around 10% fewer people pass the shop in comparison to 2011, which has closely correlated to a 9% drop in book sales year on year. Steve Orchard, manager of the Blackwell Charing Cross Road branch, said his shop was suffering to the same degree from the works. The construction project is due to go on until the end of 2016.
The two retailers are now working on a string of events to draw customers to the area. Husain said: "The idea is to get a few other businesses involved on Charing Cross Road too, to hold street events. We are hoping to design some cladding with Foyles signage to go on the scaffolding on the street and hold books events to create a bit of a spectacle. We have been impacted very significantly by the Crossrail works, so we need to do something."
Orchard said the plan was to build a calendar of events to continue to draw shoppers to the street over a sustained period of time. "It will not be just a one-off," he said. "We are talking to publishers to see if they want to get involved in promotions, and we are thinking of holding author events and putting up bunting"
The Blackwell shop has recently sub-let the window facing Charing Cross Road to a hairdressing business, Rush Hair, to counteract already high rent and business rates charged on Charing Cross Road. Orchard said the bookshop hadn't dramatically reduced the number of titles it stocked because of the move but added that stock had gradually been "rationalised" within the store.
Foyles has also delayed the moving of its Charing Cross Road flagship store to new premises next door until 2014.