The first Foyles bookshop to open outside of London for 70 years will open in Cabot Circus in March. The new shop – in Quakers Friars between Hobbs and French Connection – will have a ground floor devoted to books and a first floor to include a cafe and performance area.

Bizarrely, the location of the new Foyles is today being used by Channel Four for some filming. When I took my photograph of the empty shop (below), Gok Wan was beckoning in a group of girls who were waiting excitedly outside.

Foyles has been trading on Charing Cross Road in London for more than 100 years. Its other bookshops are at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank, in St Pancras International and in the Westfield shopping centre.

Foyles is Britain’s largest independent bookshop chain and has twice been UK Bookseller of the Year, in 2008 and 2010.

Foyles CEO Sam Husain said: “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to bring Foyles to Bristol.  When we won the Bookselling Company of the Year in May, we were praised for our big values, bold ideas and bookselling prowess, and we are really looking forward to sharing that expertise with the people of Bristol.”