Charing Cross Road used to be built as much from books as it was from bricks. Outside almost every shop were barrows and ad hoc shelves loaded with second-hand volumes, while the windows behind them were stuffed with anything from pulp novels to rare tooled leather bindings. Evocative photos from the 1930s show men in macs browsing beneath tired awnings, lights glowing warmly in the night-time fog.
昔日的查宁十字街(Charing Cross Road)起家于砖石建筑，因书店而声名远扬。几乎每家书店外都摆着手推车与特制书架，上面放着二手书，而在它们背后的橱窗里，各种书籍放得满满当当——从低俗类小说到封面压印图案的皮革装订珍版书，应有尽有。从上世纪30年代温馨老照片中，仍可看到穿着雨衣的男士在陈旧雨篷下驻足，认真拜读的身影，在雾霾的映衬下，夜幕下的灯光显得暖意融融。

The West End’s book trade was, like everything in England, layered through with class. The posh bookshop was Hatchard’s in Piccadilly (established 1797); Charing Cross Road was for cheap second-hand stuff. At its centre was Foyles, billed a century ago as “the largest bookshop in the world” and still, at least in terms of the number of different titles stocked, the UK’s most expansive. The multilevel store, now the flagship of a seven-strong chain, once resembled a part of the Soviet Union. Nearby Collett’s might have been the left’s favoured bookshop but it was Foyles that retained the extraordinary Moscow-style triple queueing system: customers had to line up to receive a chit, then again to pay at an Edwardian-style till, then once more to collect the book from where they had started.
伦敦西区(West End)的书市与全英国各地一样，也因服务不同社会阶层而分成各个档次。最棒的书屋当属位于皮卡迪利的Hatchard’s（始建于1797年）；而查宁十字街则主要销售便宜的二手书。位于街道中心中段的Foyles书店，100年前就被誉为“全球规模最大的书店”，如今至少就藏书种类数而言，依然是全英国门类最齐全的书店。这家占据多个楼层的书店如今是七家连锁店的旗舰店，一度很象前苏联的一个加盟共和国。旁边的Collett’s或许曾是左派最为青睐的书店，但如今却是Foyles书店至今仍延用着三位一体的苏式排队系统：顾客先排队取便条，然后到爱德华七世风格的收银台付账，最后再回到最初排队的地方取书。
While this arrangement was designed to have as few booksellers as possible with their hands in the till, it failed spectacularly. Thefts were legendary, by both surly staff and customers (Elizabeth Taylor once lifted a copy of AE Housman’s A Shropshire Lad as she was being snapped by the paparazzi). Foyles was a kind of familiar chaos, with books piled up on stairwells and in cupboards. What you were looking for might just as likely be under a table as on a shelf, or at the bottom of a huge pile, layered with dust and sun-bleached. But it would, almost certainly, be there.
尽管如此安排的目的是让收银台尽可能少地占用销售人员，然而效果却适得其反。偷盗书现象远近皆知，傲慢无礼的员工与顾客都难辞其咎（伊丽莎白•泰勒(Elizabeth Taylor)就曾经偷过一本A•E•豪斯曼的《什罗普郡少年》(AE Housman’s A Shropshire Lad)，而这一幕就被一路追踪至此的狗仔队拍了个正着）。昔日的Foyles书店内曾显得嘈杂混乱，而读者们对此完全熟视无睹——各种书就堆放在楼梯间与储物间里。诸位苦苦找寻的书可能在书架上，也可能就在桌子底下，或者就在一大堆书（书籍分层堆放，因阳光照射而褪了颜色，书上都积满了尘灰）的最底下。但几乎肯定就能在那儿找见。
Today, a generation away from those arcane practices, the bookshop is reopening in a huge new building a couple of doors away from its historic home. I met up with Christopher Foyle, the latest family member to own the store, in a cosy timber-panelled corner room looking out on to Manette Street and Charing Cross Road. “This used to be my aunt’s sitting room” he tells me, referring to the formidable and eccentric Christina Foyle, who ran the shop like a dictator for more than half a century. “After she died [in 1999] it was left behind a locked door and shut away, filled with books and papers – no one even knew it was here.”
如今这些秘而不宣的做法仅仅过去了一代人（30年）时间，Foyles就在离老店原址几步之遥的新大楼里重新开张。在用木板装潢的舒适的角落房间里，我见到了书店如今的传人克里斯托弗•福伊尔(Christopher Foyle)，从这儿眺望，马奈特街(Manette Street)与查宁十字街一览无遗。“这儿过去曾是我姑妈的会客厅”，他对我说，他指的就是那位令人生畏、行事古怪的克里斯蒂娜•福伊尔(Christina Foyle)，她独断专横地执掌了Foyles书店长达半个多世纪。“1999年我姑姑去世后，这个房间就紧锁大门、无人问津，里面堆满了各种书与文件——甚至没人知道它曾是我姑妈的会客厅。”
Foyle, double-breasted suit, colourful socks and silver hair, is a fine raconteur and charming company. He points out of the side window: “That was where Dickens based the character in A Tale of Two Cities.” In fact it used to be called Rose Street (once a hotbed of radicalism) and its name was changed to reflect its fictional inhabitant, Dr Manette. Books really do affect the physical fabric of the city around here.
满头银发的福伊尔身穿双排扣西服、脚穿彩色袜子，一聊起来滔滔不绝，是个魅力十足的谈伴。他指着侧窗外说：“狄更斯(Dickens)正是依据那条街构思了《双城记》(A Tale of Two Cities)中的诸多人物。”事实上，他所说的那条街过去曾叫玫瑰大街（Rose Street，曾是伦敦激进思潮的温床），如今改成此名，反映的是小说中的人物——马奈特医生。看来书真的影响了这个街区的前世今生。
Also present as we discuss the shop’s move to the former Central Saint Martins art school next door is architect Alex Lifschutz and Sam Husain, the chief executive with whom Foyle has worked since 2008. Why, I ask, did they need to relocate? “We’ve been on this site for over a hundred years,” Foyle tells me, “and the shop is higgledy piggledy and inefficient, it’s a maze. But of course customers like the nooks and crannies, the intimacy.”
就在我俩聊到书店搬到紧隔壁的新址（这儿过去曾是中央圣马丁艺术学校(Central Saint Martins art school)时，设计师亚历克斯•利夫舒茨(Alex Lifschutz)与书店CEO山姆•侯赛因(Sam Husain)也在座，自2008年以来，福伊尔就一直与山姆•侯赛因共事。我问福伊尔为何又想搬新址？“我们书店已在此处开了100多年了，”福伊尔对我说，“书店显得杂乱无章、经营效率低下，它陷入了迷途。顾客当然很喜欢原先那个僻静地方，以及那种亲切感。”
That leads us to quite how an institution such as Foyles might be recreated. Lifschutz (of Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands architects) says simply: “It needs to be a place which allows things to happen.” This is an interesting interjection precisely because of its enigmatic vagueness. The problem here, not just with Foyles but with the entire trade, is that books are a dwindling market. Lifschutz’s comment recognises the uncertainty. “I don’t think any of us knows how this business is going to end up in 10 years’ time” says Foyle. “But the acceleration into ebooks has slowed. We have enough faith that people will continue to buy books over the next 50 years to build a new store.” He compares the advent of ebooks to the arrival of electric light: “It became the main source of lighting everywhere – but the candle didn’t disappear.”
这自然就让我们关心起Foyles这类大书店该如何重建。利夫舒茨（Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands建筑事务所掌门人）说得很简单：“它应该是成就奇迹的地方。”他这段话很有意思，因为说得既含糊、又高深。问题是这并非仅仅是Foyles书店、而是整个书店行业面临的问题：图书市场正不断萎缩。利夫舒茨的话算是印证了书店经营的前景未卜。“我觉得谁也无法预知10年后书店的结局，”利夫舒茨说。“但电子图书的飞速发展已开始放缓。我们充当相信：在未来半个世纪，读者仍会不断买纸质书，因此建新书店的理由很充分。”他把电子图书的问世与电灯应用相提并论：“电灯是最主要的照明方式，但蜡烛并未消失。”
The candle, in fact, became a luxury product, which is perhaps what is happening to books today. Walking around the old shop, you saw beautifully designed reissues, new translations of obscure central European authors, fascinating collections of essays and short stories, quirky travel guides. The book trade may be held up by the blockbusters – JK Rowling, Stieg Larsson, EL James et al, but Foyles’ market is different. “Normally the council wouldn’t have given permission for change of use from an educational building to a shop,” says Foyle, “but we were seen as a kind of cultural institution – and we’re devoting part of the building to a gallery.”
事实上，蜡烛成了奢侈品，这或许就是纸质书籍如今的境况。逛旧书店时，设计精美的再版书、中欧名不见经传作家的新译著、精彩纷呈的散文集与短篇小说集以及秘境旅游指南可谓一应俱全。整个书市可能得靠J•K•罗琳(JK Rowling)、斯蒂格•拉森(Stieg Larsson)以及E•L•詹姆斯(EL James)这些如雷贯耳的名作家支撑，但Foyles书店的经营截然不同。“通常说来，相关委员会不会同意把学校大楼改作书店，”福伊尔说，“但我们书店被视为文化机构——我们把大楼一部分辟成了艺术陈列室。”
The old art school has its own history – a cultural resonance for the city every bit as worth preserving as that of the shop. The Art Deco building (still featuring its relief carvings of artisans and tradesmen) was completed in 1939 and the architects have restored its frontage, introducing a bronze main entrance and sympathetic steel windows. It sits halfway between institutional and industrial quite comfortably – a solid, massive presence.
昔日的中央圣马丁艺术学校也具有悠久历史——在伦敦看来，这属于文化的惺惺相惜，与书店的历史一样，学校的所有东西都值得保存。这幢阿泰科风格(Art Deco)的大楼（目前仍大量雕有工匠及商人的浮雕）于1939年建成，而建筑师们如今恢复了它的正面结构——青铜正门以及可爱的钢窗。这幢恢宏气派的大楼完美兼顾了文化教育与图书产业。
When we enter the new building, Lifschutz points out the old stage in the atrium where the Sex Pistols once played. Now it will be an overflow area for the children’s book section. This was the school where fashion designers Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chalayan, Stella McCartney and John Galliano as well as artists Frank Auerbach and Gilbert and George studied, a warren of dingy corridors and paint-splashed, timeworn rooms. That interior is gone, replaced by a light, bright, open space with staggered mezzanines, so it is always possible to glimpse the next level, half a floor above you. There is no luxury shopfitting here, no confusion with the smooth artifice of a fashion store or a mall. Instead there are 4.6 miles of bookshelves, exposed ducting and lights in the ceilings and an emphasis on books as beautiful, tangible objects. It is a building of exceptional clarity, a fine series of spaces – even if I might have been happy to see something scuzzier, retaining an echo of the original Foyles’ chaos or the colour-spattered walls of the art school.
走进新大楼后，利夫舒茨就指着位于正厅的老舞台区对我们说：性手枪乐队(Sex Pistols)曾在此演出。如今这儿改成了儿童读物区。在中央圣马丁艺术学校狭窄昏暗的走廊以及旧房间（墙上仍留有溅洒的颜料）里，亚历山大•麦奎(Alexander McQueen)、侯赛因•卡拉扬(Hussein Chalayan)、斯特拉•麦卡特尼 (Stella McCartney)以及约翰•加里亚诺(John Galliano)等时装设计师以及弗兰克•奥尔巴赫(Frank Auerbach)、吉尔伯特(Gilbert)和乔治等艺术家曾在此苦读。原先的室内装饰物已被一并清除，取而代之的是装有包厢的亮堂开放区域，半层楼上的包厢就能看到。这儿既没奢华的装潢，也没时尚店或大型购物中心那种巧妙掩饰。相反，店里却摆着长达4.6英里的书架，沿屋顶铺设的管道与灯饰一抬头就能看到，图书作为美观的实物反而“脱颖而出”。整个大楼分门别类进行空间划分，一清二楚——尽管如此，我可能为看到不太干净的地方而兴奋，福伊尔书店曾有的那份杂乱以及昔日中央圣马丁艺术学校那溅洒着颜料的墙壁仍在脑海中浮现。
This is, of course, not just a place for books. Modern retailing, as we are endlessly told, is about the experience. And Foyles was in the vanguard of “added value”. The readings, book clubs, literary lunches and events have been happening here since the 1920s. With a spacious glass-walled new gallery overlooking the atrium and the reinstatement of Ray’s jazz café, Foyles and the architects have made every effort to make this Lifschutz’s place where things can happen.
当然，这儿并非仅是书的世界。福伊尔不厌其烦地告诉我们：现代零售就是体验的过程。Foyles书店曾是这种“增值服务”的引领者。自上世纪20年代以来，读书会、读书俱乐部、文学午餐会等活动时不时在Foyles书店举行。由玻璃幕墙围成的新艺术陈列区十分宽敞，可以俯瞰大楼正厅以及Ray’s jazz café咖啡厅，看来Foyles书店以及它聘请的建筑师竭尽全力想要利夫舒茨设计的新书店成为奇迹成就之地。
Exactly what, however, is highly uncertain. The educational market in which the Foyle brothers started out (they sold textbooks from their failed civil service exams out of their mother’s Hoxton kitchen) is moving online; the second-hand bookshops nearby are struggling; Amazon’s discounting means people browse in shops then order later online (or even on their mobile devices in the store – “Booksellers really hate that,” says Husain with a grin). That lack of certainty is why the new store has to be big, flexible and seductive. It needs the stock to ensure that people still find what they are looking for, but also enough going on around the books to keep them coming in day and night.
但是，到底成就什么奇迹却让人捉摸不定。福伊尔兄弟创业伊始（他们公务员考试失利后，把存放在母亲霍克斯顿(Hoxton)家中厨房的相关教材拿出去卖）的图书市场如今开始向网络转战；周边的二手书店仍在苦苦支撑；亚马逊(Amazon)的打折销售策略意味着顾客可以先在实体书店看好样书，然后再到网上订购（甚至可以就在店里用手机直接网订）——“书店经营者对此深恶痛绝，”侯赛因苦笑说）。正是由于捉摸不定，所以新建书店不得不大型化、灵活经营以及想方设法吸引读者。书店必须货源充足，不但要确保读者仍能找到苦苦寻觅的书籍，而且要确保读者流连忘返，从而让他们整天来泡书店。
“Architecture”, wrote Victor Hugo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831), “will no longer be the social art, the collective art, the dominating art. The grand poem, the grand edifice, the grand work of humanity will no longer be built: it will be printed.” Hugo saw print replacing stone. Now print is itself giving way to the ephemerality of electronic information. In a city that has struggled to retain its distinctive trade districts, perhaps this combination of architecture, place and the printed word will allow Charing Cross Road to hang on just a little longer as the street of words.
雨果(Victor Hugo)在《巴黎圣母院》(The Hunchback of Notre Dame, 1931)中这样写道：“建筑艺术将不再是社会的艺术，集体的艺术，占统治地位的艺术了。人类的伟大诗篇，伟大建筑，伟大作品不会再修建起来，而是要印刷出来。”雨果亲眼看到印刷术取代了石头。如今印刷术正逐渐被更新换代周期更短的电子信息技术所取代。在伦敦这个努力保留各个独特贸易区域的城市，也许传统建筑、新书店以及纸质图书的联合能让查宁十字街作为书店一条街继续存在下去。