A CITY centre bookshop is to close down next month with the owners saying it has become impossible to make any profit.

The Last Bookshop in Butcher Row opened five years ago, selling publishers' overstock - books that otherwise might be destroyed - ranging from contemporary fiction to art, history and cook books.

Owners Jake Pumphrey and Nick Walsh who run two bookshops under the same name in Oxford and one in Bristol said they chose the name as a rebuke to those who predicted the death of the book with the rise of e-readers and the internet - its logo is a book in flames.

But now the Salisbury shop is to close at the end of July with all books on sale for £2 each.

Mr Pumphrey said: "It's with a heavy heart that we are closing - one never likes to close a shop but we just have to be realistic.

"I'm not sure Salisbury was the right town for us, we are more used to student-based places like Bristol and Oxford.

"There are less people coming to Salisbury than there were five years ago and it seems like an impossible hill to climb to get to making any profitability.

"Generally bookshops across the country over the last few years have been struggling. Some of ours are ok - it's not like it's completely depressing but it's quite a small shop in Salisbury which has never quite been ideal.

"The downstairs flooding last year didn't help so it's several factors all coming together.

"We will continue to bring in books until we close and everything will be £2."

The shop's full-time manager and three part-time members of staff are all being made redundant.

The manager Sarah Lindsell, who has worked there for four-and-a-half years, said: "It's been a good job and we like to see our regular customers but these things happen.

"Everybody says it's a shame but footfall has been dramatically dropping over the last year.

"We had to close our downstairs area last July because of a flood, we are not making enough money and the lease is up.

"Price wise we compare quite favourably to online retailers so I don't think that's had a huge impact, it's more the drop in footfall."