John Lewis Newcastle is a major department store

Department store

A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...

 in Eldon Square in the centre

Newcastle upon Tyne City Centre

Newcastle City Centre, is the central business district of Newcastle upon Tyne, England.The area may be divided into the areas of Haymarket, Quayside, Central Station, Grainger Town, Monument, Chinatown and Gallowgate.-Haymarket:...

 of Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Until 2002, the store was known as Bainbridge, a name that dates back to 1838. The name is still in use amongst many shoppers. It is part of the John Lewis Partnership

John Lewis Partnership

The John Lewis Partnership is an employee-owned UK partnership which operates John Lewis department stores, Waitrose supermarkets and a number of other services...

.

History

The store dates back to 1838, when Emerson Muschamp Bainbridge went into partnership with William Alder Dunn and opened a draper

Draper

Draper is the now largely obsolete term for a wholesaler, or especially retailer, of cloth, mainly for clothing, or one who works in a draper's shop. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. The drapers were an important trade guild...

s and fashion shop in Newcastle's Market Street. Despite success the two partners fell out and went their separate ways.

In 1849 there were 23 separate departments, with weekly takings recorded by department, making it the earliest of department store in the world. This ledger survives and is now kept in the archives of the John Lewis Partnership.

Emerson Bainbridge died in 1892 and his sons took over the business. In that same year, Bainbridge's employed a staff of 600 in Newcastle, and the store had 11,705 square yards of floor space. In 1897 the business became a private limited company. During the Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, which hit the Newcastle area badly, the store introduced agents who operated in less prosperous areas, collecting payments in weekly instalments. This meant that people on low incomes could continue to buy from the shop and it kept the Bainbridge name and reputation known in areas where otherwise it might have faded away.

In 1952 an offer from the John Lewis Partnership was accepted and ownership transferred to John Lewis in the following year, although the store continued to operate under the Bainbridge brand alongside the words "A branch of the John Lewis Partnership". The John Lewis takeover allowed much needed capital investment into the store into one of the leading department stores in the country by 1974. In 1976 the store was relocated to the Eldon Square shopping centre in the city, and was at the time the largest John Lewis outside of London.

In 2002 further refurbishment took place, and in the same year (following a suggestion from the store partners) the store was re-branded as John Lewis.

At the time of its demise, the Bainbridge name was one of the longest continuously traded department store brands in the world.

In 2008, a Waitrose

Waitrose

Waitrose Limited is an upmarket chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom and is the food division of the British retailer and worker co-operative the John Lewis Partnership. Its head office is in Bracknell, Berkshire, England...

 supermarket, also owned by the John Lewis Partnership, opened in an extension to Eldon Square, constructed in the undercroft area that was formerly occupied by Eldon Square bus station

Eldon Square Bus Station

Eldon Square bus station is one of two bus stations serving the city centre of Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England, England.It is located in the Haymarket area of the city centre, near Newcastle University, adjacent to Haymarket bus station and near Haymarket Metro station...

. The Waitrose is across the mall from the basement entrance of John Lewis, but is not linked to it directly.

External links

• John Lewis Newcastle web page