Shopper's funeral attire for last day of M&S store

Shoppers were left so sad by the loss of a city Marks & Spencer (M&S) branch that one customer even wore mourning attire for her last solemn walk between the aisles and around the racks.

The store, which was known as a stalwart of Leicester, shut for the final time on Saturday.

As the doors closed, staff gathered for a round of applause.

One shopper, though, decided to inject more of a sombre spark into Marks's demise, with 60-year-old Margherita Stevens donning a black hat and veil.

"I'm devastated, I'm lost," said Ms Stevens, who was standing outside the store with her head bowed.

"I used to come here because I knew people, I felt connected. This is ripping the heart out of Leicester, it's not just a shop closing, for me it's a chapter of my life that I will never get back.

"My heart is connected to the shop," she said, and described the shop as her "safe space".

Other customers spoke of their memories and sadness over the closures.

"I think I have always been a Marks and Spencer fan, their clothes are pure cotton," said Sundas Hasan, 38. "T-shirts, joggers; I always buy from them."

Veronique Brooke, 59, said not having the M&S would be "very sad".

"The only place you can go now is Fosse Park, and not everybody wants to go to an outlet, so I think it will have quite a bit of an effect on Leicester city centre," she said.

M&S said it made "the tough decision" to shut the Gallowtree Gate branch in May, with the closing date announced in July.

Leicester's business improvement district (BID) group described the news as "disappointing but not surprising".

A petition was launched to persuade M&S to keep open the "precious store".

But it was to no avail, and on Saturday, the "mourners" came.

Regional manager Calum Telford previously told the BBC that affected staff would be offered alternative roles in the business "wherever possible" and that M&S was investing in the nearby Fosse Park store and had made a multi-million-pound investment in a distribution centre in Castle Donington, employing more than 1,700 people.

Colin Hyde, of Leicester Civic Society, had an eye on history, and said: "There's a strong link between M&S clothing and Leicester.

"In the 1920s, Corah, which was a huge hosiery manufacturer, struck a deal with Marks and Spencer and for the next 60 or 70 years supplied a huge amount of knitwear, socks and underwear.

"If you worked in factories in Leicester there was a good chance you could go into Marks and Spencer and say 'I made that'."

Of the store's closure, Mr Hyde added: "It will leave a hole in that this is a sort of one-stop shop for good quality food, with a cafe, and it was a meeting place for people for many years.

"I think the city centre is going to have to step up to replace that.

"I think it can but it will require work from those that run the city and independent traders to fill it, because it will certainly leave a gap."

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