Foyles
. W & G Foyle Ltd (usually called Foyles ) is a bookshop on Charing Cross Road in London, England. The company was founded in 1903 by brothers William and Gilbert Foyle and moved to its present location in 1906 to.
As the brothers after failed entry exams a civil service career was denied, they offered their superfluous reference books for sale and has been inundated with offers to buy. This they suggested to act as a bookseller, where they traded initially from home with used books.
Foyles was listed for a certain time in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest bookstore in the world in terms of shelf space and number of books presented. As before, Foyles is one of the largest bookstores in the UK and also has an online shop.
By the end of the last century Foyles was famous (or infamous) for his eccentric practice, including:
- The arrangement of the books by publishers rather than by subject or author,
- A payment system that required customers to queue twice - at a switch to allow itself to issue an invoice for the book, and then another to pay the bill,
- Entering a telephone number whose sole purpose was to play a recorded message, which indicated that no calls are received,
- Unsold books that were removed from the publishers' catalogs for years ( out of print) and were still on the shelves.
However, the bookstore and their practices after the death of the owner Christina Foyle in 1999 and taking over the business by her nephew Christopher were modernized. The shop was making it more efficient, however, many regular customers of the view that it has also lost part of his charm.
Foyles is also known for his literary lunches that have been conducted since 1930. 2005 Foyles opened a branch at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank. In 2006 it was announced that there are plans to open more stores in the Hampton Court Palace and the Tower of London. A business located in St Pancras Station.
The chairman Christopher Foyle is also chairman and CEO of the aviation company Air Foyle Heavy Lift.