Major retail blow for city centre as landmark shop on prime shopping street announces closure
Major shop closes after decades in prime city centre location
One of the last remaining big shops on Fargate, once Sheffield’s main retail street, has announced its closure.
Signs have gone up in the windows and inside the shop, at TG Jones, the shop which was previously called WH Smith.
Smiths has been one of the main shops on Fargate for at least 50 years.
However, giant yellow posters in the window which have recently appeared state a sale starts tomorrow, and carry the words: “Everything must go. Store closing down.”
Similar signs carrying the same slogans are also being displayed on the inside of the store, suspended from the ceiling.
The Star has approached leaders at all of Sheffield Council’s main political parties for comment.
It is the latest business to be lost to Fargate, a street which has been targeted by Sheffield Council with a major revamp in recent years, with millions of pounds spend on transforming it.
O2 recently closed its Fargate outlet and it has also lost its former banks in recent years.
But Sheffield Council has faced criticism by some residents for changes which some people claim have deterred people from coming into the city centre, such as reducing parking spaces, the cost of car parking, and deterring cars with bus gates.
However new businesses have located there, including the giant Fargate pub, near the top of the street in what was once the Yorkshire Bank’s building. One building is being redeveloped as ‘Events Central’.
TG Jones had announced that it was closing 19 shops this month but but bosses had recently stated that its Sheffield store ‘remains open’.
TG Jones was created when Modella Capital bought 480 high street WH Smith shops last year.
In July this year a court approved a restructuring plan in which landlords cut rents in return for Modella ploughing money into a turnaround and a share of future profits.