The Slightly Foxed bookshop. Image via the website.

London’s Slightly Foxed is closing down at the end of January.

The independent bookshop, located on Gloucester Road in West London, made the announcement on its website. The owners said the area’s recent gentrification coupled with the rising rents were behind their decision to close:

We’ve loved having our bookshop on Gloucester Road. Since we took it over in 2009 it’s been a repository of good reads, a relaxing place to browse, and the scene of many a convivial book launch and get-together. But gradually the area around the bookshop has changed. The coffee shops and pâtisseries are moving in and, as in every other part of central London, rents are rising. Now our lease on the premises is coming to an end, and we’ve concluded that it’s time to seek pastures new.

Speaking to Natasha Onwuemezi at The Bookseller, Slightly Foxed’s publicity manager Stephanie Allen said, “It’s been tough in the retail trade for us. It’s been a good six years for us, but it’s getting more difficult.”

Slightly Foxed began as a quarterly literary magazine and opened its bookshop in 2009, where it sells both secondhand and new titles. The bookshop has also been a popular location for book launches and parties, as well as the ideal place in which to encounter Slightly Foxed’s own range of publications.

According to its website, the owners will now be concentrating on the magazine and its books:

As to the future, we’ll be giving thought to other ways of continuing our bookselling activities, but for the time being we’ll be concentrating on Slightly Foxed itself and all that goes with it, and on our book publishing programme. Watch this space!

The bookshop is holding a sale until it closes on the 29^th of January. If you’re in the area, make sure you pay the bookshop and its staff a visit, and give them a proper send off.