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End of an era as John Lewis closes in Barkers Pool in Sheffield City Centre Often spoken about as the heart of Sheffield City Centre, John Lewis (previously Cole Brothers) will not be here anymore Did you shop here?

Thank you organgrinder!!! Back to John Lewis, does anyone remember the days when HP was a common form of purchasing and buying from Cole Brothers "on tick" involved a trip over a covered passageway across the road into their offices to fill in the forms?

Exactly why I joined SHF, history of a great city.

I am not small minded enough to be reporting anyone for minor lapses which may not even be seen by others as a lapse. I would just prefer that the site didn't go down that road at all. It has always been a friendly site where our joint love of local history could be discussed without personal observations being made which may or may not be funny to different people. I, for one come on the site only for that purpose and was reading it for the subject under discussion, which was simply the Sheffield John Lewis store.. Sorry if I come across as a "mardy arse" but I left behind, trivialisation and schoolboy humour many years ago.

Well said.

I don't mind being jabbed til Kingdom Come....so long as, like all other immunisations I know of, they reduce the chances of infection and, lead to living a normal ( sort) of life. We seem dedicated to ever more "medicalisation" from experts, whom I was always taught , no matter how notable they are, should always be treated with some suspicion since most have their own agendas! ( I was once called to Crown Court as an "expert witness" in a fraud trial... I did know a lot about the subject and could talk about it with authority... but would never lay claim to knowing everything!)😐

Cole Bros ( it never was John Lewis as far as I was concerned) offered a policy of "never knowingly undersold" on the basis of "like for like quality and size"...not just on price! Most folk I know haven't been in Town for over a year on account of CV19 restrictions and have found it convenient to shop on line or, where possible, locally. I haven't driven into town in years and used the tram...but am unable/unwilling to suffer the wearing of a face mask ( do they actually work?) for more than a few minutes... so sat on a tram for me is now out! Come liberation for all us long twice jabbed !🙄

We have shopped at JL since we got married in 1979 and bought a lot of household items and most electrical goods from them over the years, but not clothes, as I was never interested in designer labels or fashion. My wife has bought perfumes, shoes, haberdashery and some clothes and many Christmas presents from there. She was a traditional 'stay at home mum' so we only had 1 wage coming in for 16 years, until she started part-time working, I didn't have a high paying job, so we never had a lot of money, but always found JL competitive and interesting to walk round and buy things. We are very disappointed and have said recently, as have many others, with JL closing, and M&S under review, Debenhams closed, there is little reason for us and others like us, to go into the town centre. We usually go into town every saturday and on 19th June 2021 we went into Atkinsons and were surprised how busy it was and that there were some young people in! Maybe that will be a replacement for JL, in part. I know that a final decision on JL Sheffield is being made this month, (June 2021) as Sheffield council reduced the business rates and offered incentives to keep them. The council leader said the store was profitable, so it's annoying that yet again, Leeds wins, as theirs is staying open and on a trip to Leicester, we saw a brand new tinted glass affair that is the new JL store there - I bet that stays open and does Leicester have more JL trade than Sheffield? Or is Sheffield's closure paying for Leicester? There's no way we would go to Leeds or Leicester, just to go to JL as suggested by the company and we feel let down by them. I have used computers since the early 1980s and the pure on-line approach is ok for some things, but we both feel you can't beat physically touching and feeling items like clothes, shoes, sampling perfumes before buying; looking at cookers, washers, fridges, TVs and talking to knowledgeable staff. The business model needs to be online for sure, but backed up by bricks and mortar.

Absolute nonsense they were practically the same if not cheaper then any other department store. It wasn’t exactly Harrods or Selfridges.

I take a size 11, proper size 11 not the size they put on cheap shoes which are roughly two sizes smaller, a wise old man once told me, my dad actually, pay as much as you can for your shoes and your bed because if your not in one you are in the other so comfort is foremost.

I’ve always dressed to what my income allowed but always, always smart, BUT I’ve always paid over £150 for my shoes as they give comfort through the day, the last pair I bought were a pair of dealer boots £250 and they will see me into the next life and beyond, buying cheap shoes just doesn’t work they last a year then you have to buy another pair, I bought my boots over ten years ago and due to looking after them properly they look almost new.