From https://www.stanfords.co.uk/our-stores - I remember in my youth visiting book shops like Foyles and Stanfords - the latter for maps.  Noting a post that fleetingly passed by told of the closure of Stanford's in Bristol, just a single store remains which is that one near Covent Garden.  I did have a look at their online shop too, which would now seem to be their dominant business.  Memories of other big bookstores too - whatever happened to Borders, or some of those wonderful specialist displays of IT books in places like Waterstones.

 
In Bristol, we used to have the excellent Georges bookshops, on Park Street - there were three of them, on the left hand side walking up.

One of them was where I met Harold Wilson, who was there to sign copies of his book, 'The Governance of Britain'. I didn't buy one, I just offered him a sheet of paper - which he autographed: I remember saying to him, "Thank you, sir". I was with a group of fellow sixth-formers, who had all sneaked out of school simply to attend that book signing. [Image from here is not available to guests]

 
Sad, but not surprised. I don't remember the Bristol store ever being very busy. It was on Clare Street, surrounded by bars and restaurants. There is a branch of Traifinders nearby, which could have sent some people their way, but overall it always looked a bit out of place.

 

George's (note the placement of the apostrophe - we'll come back to that) was just one shop - 89 Park St - when I was a boy. Spent many happy hours there, exploring all four floors and multiple levels, and buying many a book. I think they over-expanded when they moved into 87 and 85, and then sadly rebranded as Blackwell's - the Oxford bookseller who had actually owned the business since the 1920's.

Why was the apostrophe where it was? Because it was William George's Sons Ltd. William, incidentally, started selling books in his uncle's bookshop at 26 Clare Street - more or less opposite Stanford's. He moved the business to Park St in either 1851 or 1871 (depending on who you believe). Perhaps he thought Clare St was a silly place for a bookshop?

 

When George's closed I discovered that it had been a branch of Blackwell's since 1929 and had not been independent.

I too remember the old shop with its fascinating second hand department.  I still have a number of books I bought there.

 
That sounds very much like what happened to Reading's main independent bookseller, William Smith (no relation!) that used to be in London Street. It suffered a major fire in the early 1970s, after which there was a big sale of fire-damaged stock. I acquired an almost undamaged 7th edition One Inch (1/63,630) unfolded OS sheet 178 (Dorchester) which in due course (about 10 years later) I framed and hung on my office wall. Somewhere in the house there's a slightly smoke-damaged copy of Monkhouse's Principles of Physical Geography I acquired at the same time.

The shop moved to (if I recall correctly) King's Road, and in due course was acquired by, and rebranded as, Blackwells too. It closed in the era when Waterstones effectively took control of the serious book market in the 2000s, but they kept a store at the University.

The old London Street store had a well-regarded second-hand department, but I think almost all its stock perished in the fire. The premises were the site of an early Quaker meeting dating back to the end of the 17th century.