Thursday, July 15, 2004

Marks & Spencer’s modernism attacked

Marks and Spencer, Belfast City Centre: formerly Richardsons Warehouse

The traditionalist chain of supermarkets, beloved by the French and lovingly sneered at by the English, is going to have to close a few of its more modern doors soon. New minimalist stores are apparently decidedly *out* of the basket – at least the M&S basket.

When I was a kid, I used to love Christmastime even more than I do now, and one of the most atmospheric pleasures was being taken by the hand and led, wide–eyed, through the food hall and wine shop of our City Centre branch here in Belfast. We have a lot of former linen warehouses here, gigantic ornate masonry things, and M&S sits inside one of them (pictured above) as if it’s perfectly at home.

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