Schofields (department store)
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Schofields was a department store that operated on The Headrow in Leeds, England from 1901 to 1996. It is now home to The Headrow Centre.
[edit] History
For much of the 20th century Schofields alongside rival Lewis's (which is now closed), was regarded as being the pinnacale of shopping in Leeds City Centre. The store was founded by Snowden Schofield and the buildings were originally a mixture of Victorian era buildings which had included a shopping arcade running through the store called the Victoria Arcade. It originally opened on Saturday May 4th 1901 as a single unit and had expanded in the following years into other units. It was rebuilt in 1962 into a modernist building typical of the era. Schofields also had department stores in Harrogate and Sheffield which the Sheffield store closed in 1982 and the Harrogate branch closed following the takeover by House of Fraser. Originally family owned, it was sold to Clayform Properties Ltd in September 1984 who had intended to redevelop the site. In 1988 Schofields was sold to the Al Fayed brothers in 1988 who owned Harrods and were then owners of House of Fraser. Following this the store became part of the House of Fraser chain (but had retained the Schofields name). This had led to a reconstruction of the 1960s store in 1988 which included reducing the size of the store and creating a shopping centre which became known as the Schofields Centre and during the construction work Schofields was located on Briggate in a former Woolworths store.
With the opening of the new Schofields in 1990 it was decided that the supposedly temproary store on Briggate would be retained and be known as Rackhams (another trading name used by House of Fraser). Other than Schofields the Schofields centre had opened with other retailers including HMV and Marks & Spencer (Marks & Spencer had since closed due to expansion of the Marks & Spencer on nearby Briggate and HMV had moved into the former M&S in about 1996 gaining Leeds the status for a time of the largest HMV outside of London). However the new Schofields on The Headrow had closed down on the 27th July 1996 due to competition from the other House of Fraser store on nearby Briggate and as a result of consolidation by House of Fraser as a whole. The Briggate store is now known simply as House of Fraser and the former Schofields which the Schofields Centre had become known as The Headrow Centre had been occupied by Lillywhites sportswear retailer between 1996 and 2001 and is now occupied by several chain stores including Sports World, New Look and HMV. The only visible evidence pointing to the existence of Schofields is an NCP multi storey car park located near to the former department store on Albion Street that continues to use the name of 'Schofields Car Park' despite the demise of this department store.
The centre has recently let most of the tenency agreements run out in order to redevelope the centre in a hope to attract more business in, the decision to let most tenency agreements expire while only giving the shops 28 days notice of the closure in most cases has caused negative media to be directed towards the centre as many of the stores that have been in the centre for up to 15 years are being forced to close down and the staff are being given very little time to find new jobs, it is also seen as the centre 'killing' of the small businesses in order to get more chain stores in. The renovations are estimated to take 18 months to complete and there will be 10 stores remaining open while the work is going on. Contrary to rumours the centre will not be turning into flats and will be remaining open during the redevelopement. The new centre is projected to be finished by the spring 2009 and will be called The Core due to its place in the core of the city centre. Its is going to be home to new stores including a big one where the old food court used to be and a new food court seating 500 people will be located above New Look. The main design features are going to be mainly glass.
