John Lewis Sheffield: End of an era as sign is taken down from Barkers Pool store

Workers have been abseiling off the store by Barkers Pools yesterday and today (November 25) to remove the iconic branding from the city skyline. The sign over the entrance way had already been removed weeks ago.

The ailing department store shut its door for good in August after the decision was reportedly taken to close down at the start of the third national lockdown in January.

In March, the company said it would not reopen, at the cost of 299 jobs and a massive blow to the city centre’s high street shopping scene.

BACKGROUND: Staff bid final farewell to John Lewis in Sheffield as interior is dismantled

John Lewis had been part of Sheffield since the 1940s when it took over the historic Cole Brothers department store.

John Lewis Partnership announced the closure despite having signed a new lease with Sheffield City Council in August last year intended to keep it in the city centre - paying a peppercorn rent - for at least the next 20 years.

This itself followed almost 20 years of negotiations over its place in a series of redevelopment plans.

Now, the last letters of branding have been hauled away by workers.

It was one of eight stores nationally axed by the firm’s chairman, Sharon White, who called the closures a ‘last resort’.

"Making an announcement like this is always difficult and closing a shop is always a last resort,” she continued.

"Prior to the pandemic we believed we would still have a future in these locations.

"However, the effects of the pandemic, including three successive lockdowns and the acceleration of the switch to online shopping mean we can no longer profitably sustain a John Lewis store in some locations, which is resulting in the proposed closures announced today.

"Given the significant shift to online shopping in recent years – and our belief that this trend will not materially reverse – we do not think the performance of these eight shops can be substantially reversed.”

The empty store is only a few hundred yards from the empty Debenhams department store on The Moor, which also closed down after the retailer went into liquidation last December.