IT was the end of an era when top Southampton department store Tyrrell & Green closed its doors for the last time - and staff bid a fond farewell to the Above Bar shop which began life as a draper's in 1898.

When the doors were locked to shoppers at 6pm on Saturday, it marked the start of a carefully-planned and mammoth operation to move all the remaining stock and staff from the store to the new John Lewis Southampton.

The John Lewis Partnership - which bought the Above Bar shop in 1934 - has spent months preparing its flagship new store at the city's £295 million WestQuay Shopping Centre, which opens on Thursday.

Jo Rowe, secretary to the store's managing director Peter Turner, said on Saturday: "Preparations at WestQuay have been progressing very, very well. We have not been stocking up Tyrrell & Green - all the stock has been going straight to JLS (John Lewis Southampton).

And almost every one of John Lewis's 1,040 employees - known as partners - from sales assistants to managerial staff, will be involved in the transfer and stock-up operation.

Southampton City Council even agreed to close Above Bar Street to traffic from 6pm on Saturday until midnight on Sunday, to allow a fleet of lorries, including six articulated Waitrose trucks, to be loaded up from the front doors of Tyrrell & Green.

Jo said: "The lorries can take 35 to 40 cages of stock at a time, and altogether 1,600 cages of stock are being moved between the two stores.

"We are trying to allow everybody to have one day off between now and Thursday so that they're well rested, but everybody will be involved at some point during the four-day closure.

"It's not just the selling partners - it's everybody, which is really nice to feel involved."

But before getting stuck into the hard work of moving on Saturday night, the partners did find time - though only half-an-hour - for a celebratory glass of bubbly and a slice of cake.

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