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Four Provinces bookshop in Holborn |
Irish shop’s luck runs out with a big rent rise
Council lease review spells end for unique bookshop
THE streak of Irish luck that has kept Holborn bookshop The Four Provinces open for more than 40 years may have finally run out.
The shop for rare and specialist Irish publications announced this week it is being forced out by a council rent rise.
The owners of the premises on Gray’s Inn Road have been asked to pay almost double their annual lease – a raise from £2,500 a year to £4,000.
Sally Richardson, the shop’s manager, said the rent hike spelled the end for the resilient bookstore, which has survived previous evictions and dilapidated premises since it was founded in a neighbouring property in 1966.
Ms Richardson said the area was being redeveloped and Camden Council was “looking for businesses that can afford to pay the highest rents possible”, adding: “There is no way we can afford to pay it – we run on a shoestring. We’re going to have to close later in the year. It’s sad because most of the books you find in our shop you wouldn’t find anywhere else – if Four Provinces shut down people would have to go to Ireland to get some of this stuff.”
The current economic climate and the “pile ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap mentality” of major bookshops had also contributed to the Four Provinces financial straits, according to Ms Richardson.
The bookshop is owned by the Irish republican organisation The Connolly Association and staffed entirely by volunteers.
The course has not always run smoothly for the bookshop. They were evicted from their previous location on the street in the early 1980s when council bosses decided to sell the premises.
Instead of folding, The Four Provinces moved into a dilapidated office next door. It was in such poor condition the bookshop was forced to close for the whole of 2005 for renovations but even then the shop continued, running the business as a mail order company from a small backroom. It reopened in 2006.
A Camden Council spokeswoman said: “The new rent is subject to negotiation and agreement by the parties and has been referred for determination by an independent expert, in accordance with the terms of the lease.
“The council remains willing to negotiate with Connolly Publications to reach an amicable agreement.”
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