The branch of Debenhams shown in today’s post has been in Sheffield since 1973 when it replaced Paulden’s department store. It closed for good (along withe every other branch of the store) in May 2021, the mandated closure of non-essential retail businesses due to the Covid-19 pandemic hammering the final nail into its coffin.
It marked a double-whammy for Sheffield as there were not just one, but two seperate branches of Debenhams in the city. The one shown here at the top of The Moor, and another, more recent branch, in the Meadowhall shopping mall.
There are not many Department stores left in town I hope some survive
The John Lewis department store in Sheffield can trace it’s history back to 1847. It was originally a silk mercer and hosier founded by brothers John, Thomas and Skelton Cole and traded under the name Cole Brothers. The Cole Brothers business was sold to Selfridge Provincial Stores in 1920 which was itself then bought by John Lewis during the Second World War.
The store continued to trade under the Cole Brothers name in Sheffield and moved to new premises in Barker’s Pool in 1963. The store expanded further when the former primitive methodist chapel, Bethel Chapel, which sits across the road from the main building on Cambridge Street, was purchased to house the offices. Later, these secondary premises would house the toy and sports departments. The store branding has now been removed, but the upper floors of this building can be seen in the image below.
In 2002 the store was formally re-branded to John Lewis. In 2021 it was announced that the store would be closing permanently. The main entrance to the building is covered with messages from staff, customers, and Sheffielders recounting memories of working in and visiting the store and lamenting its loss.
Hearts on store window A lament to memories past Working and shopping
A quick post today as it’s almost time for our Saturday-night movie – we’ve been watching the whole MCU series in release order for the past few months, one movie per week, and are now almost at the end – just Avengers: Endgame tonight, and then Spider Man: Far From Home next week and that’s all twenty-two viewed in sequence. Then we’re done until Black Widow gets it’s belated release in a couple of months. We’ve also had a Chinese takeaway and I’m feeling stuffed to the gills with all manner of dishes.
Anyway, here’s a photo of a small passageway in the centre of Sheffield that I’ve never noticed before. I always presumed it was an entrance to the office building beneath which it passes, but it’s actually a thoroughfare!
Lots of Chinese food Now I’m ready for Thanos And his comeuppance
I’m still in my “don’t feel like posting” mood today, although not so much as before. I didn’t have an extra-long day at work today, as with the previous two, plus the report I had to deliver has now been sorted and presented, so that’s out of the way and off my mind to a large degree (although there’s still further work to be done as an outcome). I don’t think the warm weather we’re having at the moment is helping much either, even though it’s not unseasonably hot or anything, rather we’ve had a run of colder-than-expected temeratures and now it’s bounced back to normal it feels like a heatwave in comparison.
The weekend beckons though, and while the usual chores are waiting to rob me of my time (the grass needs cutting again) I should have enough time to at least try and relax and do something I enjoy. This weekend, if the sunshine holds, that will hopefully include a walk to try out some expired Velvia 50 that I have four rolls of. This will be my test roll and give me a good idea of how the film performs given it’s age and give me confidence (or not) as to it being useable. I have some Sensia 100 received from the same person and the first roll of that looks fine (although I haven’t scanned it yet).
Anyway, I’m supposed to be averse to posting at the moment, so I’d better bring things to a close with some photographs. A couple more from my XA3 test roll.
The first photo is looking up to the large block of concrete that is the O2 Academy, but which will always be the Roxy nightclub to people of a certain age. It sits atop a large NCP car park and, while not to everyone’s taste, is quite a distinctive structure.
The second shows a much older building in the shape of the NSPCC building. It’s surrounded by more modern structures, but the curve of the block-paved roadway leading up to and around the building makes for a nice image.
Drinking and dancing Loud music and toilet floods That allright f’yers?
After yesterday’s grumble about not wanting to write a blog post, I’m in the same boat again today. Still at work finishing off a report I need to present tomorrow. The hard part is done, but PowerPoint is dedicating it’s efforts to slow my progress by making seemingly simple tasks time consuming and frustrating.
I’m writing the blog to take a break, so please enjoy a photograph of Pond Street bus station (or “interchange” as I believe it is now named), in Sheffield.
WordPress seems to be on it’s only little mission to perplex me at the moment too. For the last week or so every time I post a new blog entry I get a message congratulating me that I’m “on a streak“. I expect today I’ll get one letting me know my streak is now at 892 days of continual posting. I’ve no idea why this has started, when it will decide I realise and stop bothering me, or why just-under-two-and-a-half-years of continual posting is the time to begin telling me about it.
Why do things happen? It’s often a mystery Or a cosmic joke
I really don’t feel like writing a blog post. A busy day at work and all I want to do is chill out, but my daily posting regime means I won’t allow myself to evade the blog. The fact that I’m adding a haiku to every post this year is an extra unwanted bonus on a day like this. It’s all of my own making of course, and no-one is forcing me to write a new post every day, but sometimes I really fancy a day off from it. The issue with doing so is that then the run is broken. What would then stop me from taking a day off every time I didn’t feel like it (which happens on a pretty regular basis)? I suspect that any sort of break would be a straw to break a camels back and my frequency of posts would fall off a cliff.
But hey, look, I managed to get a post out of moaning about not wanting to post anything! Winner winner chicken dinner!
Anyway, here are two more “test” photos from the little XA3.
I can’t be bothered To try and write a haiku Here’s one anyway
A few shots today from my new (to me) Olympus XA3 which I acquired a month ago. I’ve shot three rolls with it so far and the results from each have been pretty impressive. It’s a low-frills camera, but it makes up for it with a sharp lens and tiny form factor – a benefit both in its portability and also because the film transport is so short that I’ve gotten 39 shots a roll from it each time!
The photos from this first roll were made on a walk around the edge of the city centre and intended mostly to test the camera for oparating problems / light leaks etc. (of which there are, thankfully, none) so expect a bunch of slightly randon pictures of buildings and anything else that caught my eye on the day in coming posts.
Random city scenes Just the things that catch my eye While taking a walk
I’ve had quite a full and busy weekend, but not much time for any photography. I have finished scanning another roll of 35mm film though, leaving me with just another two rolls yet to scan. This makes a total of six rolls of film (4x36exp 35mm & 2x12exp 120) from which I’ve not published a single image as yet. At least I can relax in the knowledge that I can feed the blog for a few weeks without running out of new photos should I need to. I’ll probably have shot more before that happens though…
Plenty of pictures Waiting in the photo bank Soon to be seen here
Like a Borg Cube descended to Earth, this angular structure sits adjacent to the River Don behind Savile Street. The circular “portholes” and horizontal bands break up what might otherwise be a plain and undistinguished structure. I like the way it looms in the picture both above and below the water.
Angular it stands A monolith by water Blue and grey tower
