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Debenhams closes its doors after 200 years

By Natasha Brewer • Published: 15 May 2021 • 12:53

Debenhams closes its doors after 200 years. Image: Twitter

Debenhams closes its doors after 200 years.

Debenhams in Sheffield had lines of bargain hunters at the tills, but it seemed more like a market hall than a department store chain with origins dating back more than 240 years.

The cosmetics department had been stripped bare, with some brand names now covered by black spray paint, and the lingerie show had been reduced to four cardboard boxes of bras.

A sign above the tills at the city centre store read, “All must go,” but there was little stock left by Thursday afternoon, with just one and a half of the store’s four floors still open. This store, along with 28 others from Brighton to Belfast, will close their doors for the last time on Saturday, including major shopping mall outlets such as Lakeside, Trafford, and the Birmingham Bullring.

For the first time since 1813, when William Debenham became a partner in a draper’s shop on London’s Wigmore Street and the shop was called Clark & Debenham, the brand name will vanish from UK high streets.

“People are loving it; some items are 80 percent off,” one employee said as customers rummaged through clothing rails lined up in the middle of the store floor. “It’s just sad,” she said. Some [staff] have worked here for 20 or 30 years, and it is their only home.”

Shoppers were also saddened, with one speculating that Debenhams’ closure would leave a “huge empty hole” in the city’s center.

Some wondered whether the city centre will still be worth visiting after Saturday, given that there would be just one department store left open, local independent Atkinsons, following the permanent closing of John Lewis’ Sheffield store in March and the closure of TJ Hughes’ nearby outlet last year.

“I’m heartbroken. I’ve cried over it. One shopper lamented, “It makes me so sad to see our town center transform into a ghost town.”