Out go the old bookshops, in come the new bars as a chapter ends for literary London

The metaphor is obvious, perhaps, but none the less irresistible – the turning of a page, the closing of a chapter. Sadly, it refers to Charing Cross Road, a place where for decades Londoners and many from much further afield have gone to browse through books, seek out first editions, leaf through rarities or simply linger a while, enjoying the smell of pulp and binding.

The street immortalised by Helene Hanff's 84 Charing Cross Road, the story of a transatlantic affair conducted between literature lovers, is losing its identity, changing from the place to buy books to a place of homogeneous high-street culture.

Number 84, where a fusty, atmospheric bookshop once stood, steeped in a romance most thought must have been protected by some kind of listed status, is now an outlet for the All Bar One chain.

According to the street's booksellers, who are reluctantly packing up and moving on, huge increases in rents are forcing them out of business, leaving the way clear for the high-street giants to move in to what is arguably the busiest few hundred yards in the capital.

Even Waterstone's, which has traded from numbers 121 and 129 since 1982, is closing its two stores because of what it claims is a crippling new lease proposed by its landlords. Last month, Silver Moon, the women's bookseller that for 17 years was a champion of female writers, has closed its doors. Over the years the shop also evolved into a resource centre and was known as a place where women could go for advice and help.

There is a newer bookshop, The Book Warehouse, but it is not in the tradition of the old bookshop, and offers discount editions alongside toys and cheap candles. Next door, where Any Amount of Books traded until last month, is now a Romanian charity shop. Inside, visitors are greeted by the sad sight of row upon row of empty shelves.

"If Waterstone's can't make it, no one can," said Ian Shipley, of Shipley Specialist Art Books, next door to the former Silver Moon. "It's a very British thing. You've got something you're really good at, world leaders in, so we close it down.

"Number 84, once the most famous bookshop in the world, is now an All Bar One. It's the homogenisation of our culture. There's a serious problem with the rents. One store's rent has just gone up from £75,000 to £125,000 a year. The writing is on the wall for what will happen here in the future. It's a very bleak picture."

Borders, Blackwell's and some independent shops appear to be safe. But the art book chain Zwemmers is in the middle of a rent review over its shop in nearby Litchfield Road.

The "Starbucks effect", as local people call it, is an overwhelming fear among Charing Cross booksellers who have watched the area become increasingly sleazy as established traders are replaced by cheap souvenir stores offering plastic police helmets. Their nickname for Charing Cross Road is the "Wild West".

Anthony Rhys Jones, of Henry Pordes Book Ltd, called for rent increases to be capped in the way that they were by the now-defunct Greater London Council in the early 1980s. "There used to be a thriving bookshop retail trade here," he said. "But now they've put in these mind-boggling rents. It doesn't serve the community. Hundreds of thousands of Americans come here to see Charing Cross Road. In the world of rent, there's no sentiment. But in a few years, the Starbucks effect will have taken hold. If bookshops close down, the area will suffer greatly."

When Jane Cholmeley, the manager of Silver Moon, which still trades on the internet through Foyles, learnt of her last rent increase in 1998, she burst into tears. This and cut-throat competition from commercial conglomerates finished off the shop. When the landlord, the Soho Housing Association, indicated that it wanted to take back the lease two years early, Ms Cholmedley and her business partner, Sue Butterworth, reluctantly conceded defeat.

Waterstone's is trying to find jobs elsewhere for its 43 staff, but redundancies seem inevitable. "We wouldn't make a decision like that if we had a choice," a spokeswoman said.

But the store has been forced to quit after it realised redevelopment plans by the landlord would make it impossible to operate profitably. "It's the financial consequences. It would have meant the lease was too expensive and therefore not viable to trade in," the spokeswoman said.

Maxim Jakubowski, who owns Murder One, the world's largest murder-mystery bookstore, has resisted a proposed rent increase of 60 per cent, managing to haggle down to between 25 and 30 per cent.

"But that's still a hell of a hike," he said. "There's no street in the world that is so orientated towards books. But if Waterstone's with all their commercial might think a proposed increase would make them uneconomical you can see the difficulties. The margins in books have always been fairly tight."

The landlord for most of the better-known booksellers is the charitable Soho Housing Association. It insists it is as anxious as anyone to preserve the character of Charing Cross Road, but says it also has a responsibility to maximise income from its assets.

Simon Sellens, the charity's head of development, said: "The rent is reviewed for each shop five years after the start of a tenancy and every five years thereafter. Because tenancies begin at different times, the timing of the reviews is also different. Rent reviews are agreed between two surveyors. One acts on behalf of the landlord. The other acts on behalf of the tenant.

"We are concerned that because of such events as the ending of the Net Book Agreement, the arrival of book megastores ... and the increasing growth of competition from internet companies such as Amazon, it is possible that other individual bookshops will not survive."

Soon, all that may remain of the romance of Charing Cross Road are the memorable performances of Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft in the film of Hanff's book, scant consolation for those who take pleasure in a good story, particularly one with a happy ending.