Peter Jones (department store)

Peter Jones is one of the largest and best known department stores in central London, England. It is a store of the John Lewis Partnership and located on Sloane Square, at the junction of King's Road and Sloane Street, in the fashionable Chelsea district, close to the elite districts of Belgravia and Knightsbridge. Peter Jones was founded as an independent store but was taken over in the 1920s to form part of the John Lewis Partnership.

The shop is named after Peter Rees Jones (1843–1905), the son of a Monmouthshire hat manufacturer. After serving an apprenticeship with a draper in Carmarthen he moved to London and set up in business. He started out in a small shop in Hackney, but soon moved to central London before moving on to 4–6 Kings Road, which is part of the site of the present store, in 1877. The neighbourhood was fashionable and the business flourished, soon expanding to cover most of the block. By the time Jones died, however, it had fallen on hard times, and a year later it was purchased by John Lewis of the eponymous Oxford Street store, who handed it over to his son John Spedan Lewis in 1914. Soon after it became part of the John Lewis profit sharing partnership. The present building, which occupies the whole of an island site on the west side of Sloane Square, was built between 1932 and 1936 to designs by William Crabtree of the firm of Slater, Crabtree and Moberly. The building featured the first glass curtain walling in Britain and is now a Grade II* listed building.

It is seen as rather exclusive (although its stock and decor are no different from other John Lewis stores) and a cut above the partnership's other central London department store, the original and flagship John Lewis store in Oxford Street, and this aura of exclusiveness is the main reason the owners (which, as it is in the John Lewis Partnership, means its staff) have kept its separate identity. The store was given a major overhaul [cite web|title = "Escalator to Heaven" The Guardian|url = http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1238183,00.html|accessdate = 2008-04-04] . in the early 21st century by [http://www.mcaslan.co.uk John McAslan and Partners] , re-opening in 2004. John McAslan is a former Richard Rogers Partnership employee.

There are two other main department stores in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, namely Harrods and Harvey Nichols.

References

External links

* [http://www.peterjones.co.uk/ Official website of Peter Jones]
* [http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/29821-popup.html 1939 RIBA picture in V&A collection]
* [http://www.mcaslan.co.uk Architects John McAslan + Partners]