When it comes to designer labels and top-of-the-range goods, John Lewis has long been the go-to department store when you needed an appliance you could be confident wouldn't break after a week. Or, where you go to buy a gift for someone you really wanted to impress.
The new flagship John Lewis in Birmingham will be an anchor store for the £150 million Grand Central retail development and will cover an impressive 250,000 square feet of retail space, across four storeys.
Flickr: Elliott Brown
As you might expect from one of the largest John Lewis stores outside of London, it will have departments for menswear, womenswear, childrenswear, home, lighting and more. The store has already confirmed it will be stocking a range of luxury brands including Chanel, Dior, YSL, Estee Lauder and Clarins.
However, as the £35 million store is not due to be completed until September, there is still a lot of work to be done. Here are some behind-the-scenes photos to show things are getting on:
John Lewis
In case you were wondering how some of that £35m was spent, here are some construction stats. To date, John Lewis Birmingham has used: 14,000 square meters of ceramic flooring (enough to tile four Olympic-sized swimming pools); 76 tonnes of sprinkler pipework (which, laid end-to-end, would reach from the store to the outskirts of Wolverhampton); and 58,000 square meters of plasterboard (enough to cover Birmingham Botanical Garden).
John Lewis
In the final two weeks of before the opening date, it is expected that there will be up to 800 people on site putting the finishing touches together. At the moment, it has just some important-looking people in hi-vis jackets.
John Lewis
The store is great news for the area. Not only does it mean a wealth of new choice for shoppers, it will create 500 new jobs – the biggest recruitment drive seen in the city for a long time.
John Lewis
If you want to find out what else you can look forward to in future, here's our list of new venues that have just opened or will be opening soon.