John Lewis was always the bastion of the high street, but now it’s faltering

mack in the middle of Kingston upon Thames is a John Lewis.

It’s no exaggeration to say this is one enormous store. “The same footprint as St Paul’s Cathedral,” the publicity gushed when it opened in 1990. Each of the two floors of the underground car park is as big as an international football pitch, and “the third-floor roof void is equivalent to an Olympic-sized swimming pool”. It’s served by 18 lifts and 17 elevators.

You get the picture. Except you won’t, unless you’re familiar with this part of Greater London. The department store is not remotely beautiful and is out of step with the surroundings. How this ugly building got planning permission is baffling, but then again it isn’t, because this was the first John Lewis store to be built south of the river, and Kingston was desperate to be seen as a major “shopping destination”. It was heralded as a magnet for consumers and for other shops attracted by the increased footfall it would bring. This too was John Lewis. This was not any old rapacious operator; this was the oh so nice, mutually owned, middle-class homebuilder.