Welwyn: Years of Prosperity

Continuous Growth

In the post-war years  the department store Welwyn Garden City made vast strides forward. As the shop continued to grow in popularity, demand and stock range massively increased. Soon the store offered services ranging from a record department to a fully functioning Laundrette.

Aside from a 30,000 square foot extension added in 1968 which housed a brand new food hall, little changed throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The store continued to thrive, although from 1976 onwards it started to face stiff competition from the newly opened John Lewis Brent Cross, under half an hour’s drive away. The Partnership had also recognised the potential of the Hertfordshire store, and eager to spread its retail authority to further sites across the country, began closing in the net.

Following the assimilation of ‘Bonds’ of Norwich into the ‘John Lewis Partnership’ in 1982, just a year later it was announced that ‘Welwyn Department Store’ would go the same way as of 30 July 1984.