Waterstones temporarily closes high street stores

By John Freeman on March 23, 2020

To mitigate possible spread of the Coronavirus, and to protect the wellbeing of customers and staff, all branches of Waterstones will be temporarily closing their doors by the close of trade Monday 23 March until further notice.

Waterstones announced the closure after increasing concern online for the safety of staff and growing awareness of the importance of social distancing to prevent the spread of the virus.

Some staff were, understandably, particularly vocal in their concerns on social media, picked up by customers who urged Waterstones to reconsider consider continued high street trading.

“We would like to thank our customers for their messages of support during this most challenging of times, and we very much look forward to the moment we can open our doors once again,” the company said in a brief statement.

“In the meantime, Waterstones.com remains open to serve your reading needs.”

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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.