John Lewis unveils refurbished Edinburgh store

Department store John Lewis is reopening its Edinburgh store on May 14 after a multi-million-pound refurbishment as part of its investment in “creating inspiring spaces”.

Located within the new St James Quarter, the John Lewis and Partners Edinburgh store boasts a range of new services and experiences, including a beauty studio, personal styling services, its largest ever ‘World of Design’ and expanded fashion departments.

The store has been designed to act as an “inspirational physical space” to interactively showcase John Lewis’ products, across fashion, beauty, homeware and technology to “deliver a fun day out shopping for all the family,” added the retailer.

Key highlights include the retailers biggest-ever World of Design hub to provide home design inspiration and advice. The 3,000 square foot space will allow home stylists to offer free drop-in appointments to help customers design an instant home makeover. There will be inspiring room sets so customers can visualise how the latest furniture can be styled with lamps, rugs, bookshelves to create a stylish new room. Customers can also create a bespoke magnetic moodboard with samples of carpets, wallpaper and fabric, to make it easier to remodel their home.

The Edinburgh store has also increased the size of its womenswear and menswear departments. The fashion area now has a much wider collection of brands such as Sweaty Betty and The Fold for women and Albam Utilities, Barbour White Label and Community Clothing for men. Customers can also take advantage of personal styling services to refresh their wardrobes.

John Lewis makes Edinburgh store “family friendly” and interactive

Childrenswear has also been renovated as a bright, colourful space. The store has also been made family-friendly with several interactive play areas dotted around the shop, a first for one of John Lewis’ stores. These play areas include a teepee, giant soft play cube game, digital coffee table with a touch-screen top and a soft-play vegetable patch.

There is an enhanced nursery department with service offering ‘All Things Baby’ appointments to provide parents-to-be and new parents with guidance and support, alongside John Lewis’ newly launched ‘Baby and Beyond’ service to support customers with product purchases as their baby enters the child development stage - from weaning and feeding to baby proofing and sleeping.

The store also houses the John Lewis Beauty Society, a free, concierge-style service offering customers “trusted and impartial advice”. There are also two beauty treatment rooms where luxury aesthetics clinic, the Cavendish Clinic, will offer bespoke treatments such as Laser hair removal and Cellulite treatments as well as retailing medical-grade skincare such as Dr Levy, SkinCeuticals and Zo.

This marks the first time that John Lewis Beauty Tech and Wellness departments will be available in one of its shops and new concepts including ‘Bitesize Beauty’ will be installed housing over 40 brands with travel-sized beauty products. Menswear will also feature a beauty and grooming area that includes traditional skincare brands such as Clarins, Clinique and Elemis alongside niche brands Murdock and War Paint as well as best selling fragrances.

In addition, there is a dedicated Neom shop, the first of its kind in Scotland, offering a “counter of calm” to the store’s refurbished candle department. Customers can take a ‘scent discovery’ experience and explore wellbeing ranges from sleep to de-stress and energy.

Barry Blamire, head of branch for John Lewis Edinburgh, said in a statement: “We are so excited to be opening once again and welcoming customers into our refurbished shop. The past year has shown just how much our customers rely on our Partners for that much-needed advice and guidance. This new shop provides an inspirational physical space to come and browse everything and anything from homeware to fashion, nursery to technology.

“The new look store has been designed as a hub of inspiration, curation, convenience and personal advice. We invite customers to come and visit our biggest ever World of Design for home styling, speak to an expert Beauty advisor at our first ever Scottish Beauty Studio, or to get advice in our redesigned Nursery department. We also want to welcome families and there are lots of fantastic design elements and fun spaces for children to explore safely while their parents browse.”

The John Lewis Edinburgh shop officially reopens on May 14 and will be open from 9am to 8pm Monday to Saturday and 10am to 6pm on Sunday.