Gone in a flash - Waterstones bookshop loses £9000 worth of books in the floods

Waterstones bookshop has lost £9,000 worth of books after it was flooded during the torrential rain that hit the Midlands Credit: BPM Media

Waterstones bookshop has lost £9,000 worth of books after it was flooded during the torrential rain that hit the Midlands last week.

The 1930s Art Deco store only re-opened last November after a nine-week refit to turn it into the company’s third biggest store.

It has two moat drainage channels outside the front door, but they could not cope with the intensity of the storm on June 14 and floodwater poured in through the front door.

Water then cascaded downstairs and through the lift shafts, wrecking the lifts, some electrics, parts of the ceiling in the lower ground floor and 900 fiction books in the lower ground floor sales area. The basement section had only been reopened to the public for seven months after being closed for 15 years.

Water cascaded downstairs and through the lift shafts, ruining 900 fiction books Credit: BPM Media

The branch is also the country’s tallest bookshop, and so until the lifts are repaired, some customers won't be able to access the four floors above ground level.

Waterstones’ Birmingham regional manager Stuart Bartholomew said:

The store hopes to reopen the basement by this Saturday 25 June.