Marks & Spencer on Walworth Road is set to close signalling the end of a shop that has served locals since 1913.
Shoppers have expressed disappointment at the news, with older customers recalling fond memories of visiting in the ’60s when some products were still stored in drawers.
M&S did not say when the closure could happen but the News understands June is considered likely.
A company spokesperson thanked the shop’s customers and said M&S would keep “working hard” to serve them at stores across the capital.
The Walworth store has seen a consistent decline in sales in recent years.
M&S retail bosses have only lodged a proposal to close so far but employees are already being informed about transfers to other stores.
The store was opened during the Edwardian Era, just 29 years after the first-ever shop was founded in Leeds and one year before the outbreak of World War I.
The building used to be the Rutter Bros drapery store although the current shopfront dates from the interwar period.
Sandy Shaw, aged in her 70s, said: “We really don’t want it to close. It’s the only decent shop we’ve got around here… the quality, the clothes.”
She remembers visiting the store in the ‘60s when products were stored in drawers that customers would pull out.
Sandy, who has lived in Walworth her whole life, said: “Nobody can believe it. My friend uses a motorised scooter. In here she can go around quite easily but in that [Walworth Road] Morrisons it’s incredibly tight.”
She added: “We all know the staff. Most of the staff we call by their Christian names.”
Another customer, Anne Bond, 76, remembers shopping at the store with her mum as a child in the 1960s.
“It’s a bit of a nuisance because now I’ve got to get on a bus to [the M&S on] Oxford Street,” she said. “I like the food, I like the quality.”
She said an ice cream parlour and hatters once stood next to the shop with their buildings later incorporated into the M&S shop.
At least one employee has worked at the store for over 45 years, the News understands.
The shop has a clothing department, bakery plus the usual food offering.
The nearest M&S stores are in Denmark Hill and Brixton but only the latter has a clothing department.
Local group The Walworth Society has expressed concern at the closure and invited M&S representatives to discuss the plans at its next meeting at 7pm on Wednesday, March 20.
Gordon Scott, M&S Regional Manager, said: “Shopping habits are changing, so we’re rotating our store estate to make sure we have the right stores with the right space to offer customers a brilliant shopping experience.
“As part of this transformation, we have this week announced to colleagues our proposal to close the M&S Walworth Road store.
“Our priority right now is talking to colleagues about what the announcement means for them. Should the proposals go ahead, wherever possible we will offer them alternative roles with M&S.
Over the last two years alone, we have invested over £23 million in our stores across London.
“We would like to thank all our customers who have shopped in the store, and we will be working hard to keep serving them in our other stores in the local area and across the capital – and online at marksandspencer.com.”