Knight & Lee is a
department store in Southsea
, Hampshire, England
. The
store was acquired by the
John
Lewis Partnership in 1934.The store's origins can be traced
back to 1831 with the lace business conducted by Mr
William Wink near
Portsea Docks. The shop was taken over by
Frederick Wink in 1865 to trade as
'Wink & Co.'. The business moved to its present Palmerston Road
site in 1874 and was bought by
Jesse Knight and
Herbert Soden Lee, two experienced
drapers from London, in 1887. 'Knight & Lee' was made a private
company two years later.In 1910 the varied premises of the store
were completely rebuilt to create one unified department store in
typical
Edwardian style. This building was
completely destroyed by incendiary bombing on
10th January 1941.Business
continued thereafter from ten small shops in the Southsea area
until the present building was completed in 1956. The
Menswear and Sports departments continued to be
housed in separate premises until 2001.The current department store
trades on three floors and offers a wide range of goods and
services across many departments. Since the closure of
Caleys, in 2006, Knight & Lee has become the
smallest of the John Lewis department stores.
A new John Lewis
Partnership department store, 'John Lewis Portsmouth', is currently
planned on the site of the former Tricorn Centre
in the commercial heart of Portsmouth
, although construction has yet to commence.
This new shop is expected to open in 2011 and will mark the closure
of Knight & Lee.