What is wrong with John Lewis?

I think this couple are a disgrace, they treat the whole treasury as a personal spending account and give huge sums to their mates and companies they own then worry when they get found out. Carrie antoinette is just one example. Green credentials? they don't have any I tried to take advantage of their green credentials scheme, it was so unworkable they scrapped it in the end, the moral of this story is don't vote tory unless you want to give your taxes to rich business people

I love John Lewis and am bereft that John Lewis in York is closing

Haven't been to John Lewis for couple of years - mainly due to it's location in Edinburgh then Covid. It's a bit old fashioned, cafe nice, items good quality but expensive. Their towels are the best I've ever had. Good deals on lego. Sometimes don't have the stuff online in the store and I've taken a bus trip into Edinburgh to look at what I wanted to buy as a gift but they didn't have it in store which was annoying. Can click and collect at Waitrose but there are not many of these stores around. Last thing I bought was an artificial Christmas tree for DD2 which I collected from Waitrose Morningside.
Thanks for the links MaizieD as I hadn't a clue what the look was. Be nice to see the flat now though. Everyone to their own. I would find that a bit overwhelming though.

What’s wrong with John Lewis we were upset when ours closed. What’s right about Carrie Symonds and who even cares what she thinks.

On leaving:
"My word, you've kept the paintwork clean"

We obviously didn't mess it up enough after we'd repainted - the previous occupants must have been smokers, it was shades of yellow when we moved in.

Callistemon

^As with any married quarter new occupants could decorate the place how they wanted to if they were daft enough.^

Well, with a married quarter you could re-decorate but you would have to put it back to exactly as it was when you moved in, ie magnolia, scratched and shabby.

Ah yes, I remember it well ?

Callistemon Is she upcycling the John Lewis furniture by lettng her expensive decorator re-cover and repaint the furniture and an exorbitant price?

I found the comments made by Ms. Symonds very patronising and rude showing a lack of respect to the previous occupants. I cannot see Boris Johnson as a man who is interested in interior design and he was more concerned about other problems at the time.

The French Prime minster lives in Hôtel de Matignon which I very much doubt that any Prime Minster would have any say on redecoration.
Someone in the family did live in several government houses/flats. When they move in they were sometimes allowed to choose and exchange furniture from a huge governmental warehouse.

Casdon not competing in any way with France Germany etc I was just trying to illustrate that our PM should have better than a 'perfectly adequate' flat! The decor is irrelevent to me.

what a mark CS could have made by using recycled furniture etc.

M0nica I did read somewhere that Carrie has been busy upcycling furniture during the last year.
I believe everything I read

You said that Alima

read the whole post!

As with any married quarter new occupants could decorate the place how they wanted to if they were daft enough.

Well, with a married quarter you could re-decorate but you would have to put it back to exactly as it was when you moved in, ie magnolia, scratched and shabby.

I love John Lewis. It’s not boring or bland and there are enough different styles and designs available there to cater for different tastes. As for the Lulu Lytle interior - cluttered, mithering, clashing colours, but interesting. I couldn’t live with that styling myself, but I can appreciate it. It’s rather womb-like IMHO.

And it's nothing to do with the subject in hand.

Aveline

Macron is president and Head of state like Biden who has the White House.
That our Prime Minister's flat is under discussion is an embarrassment. Time a proper residence is found for him.

Why are you so bothered about this? Our PM has always had Downing Street and chequers plus there’s all the royal palaces as well.

A Elaine, can you explain why Downing Street isn’t a proper residence for the PM

Macron is president and Head of state like Biden who has the White House.
That our Prime Minister's flat is under discussion is an embarrassment. Time a proper residence is found for him.

Macron is not the French Prime Minister. He is the The head of State, like the Queen so comparing his house with that of the PM is not comparing like with like.

What sticks in my throat in all this ostentatious, pricy and rather vulgar redecoration, is that Ms Symonds is vaunted as a 'passionate' environmentalist and I just cannot balance this with her reckless expenditure on new furnishings. What is the environmental cost of this massive refit?

As a 'passionate' environmentalist. what a mark CS could have made by using recycled furniture etc. She has the great auction houses in central London nearby where she could buy the most beautiful and expensive antique furniture, or she could have gone for mid-century modern, all Ercol and G Plan or High modern Italian style from the 1960s/70s.

An opportunity lost for them both to have made an environmental statement about their own personal commitment to climate change.

In HK we were in government flats. We all had the same furniture but had to buy our sofa/chair covers and curtains, rugs etc so there was a bit of indivuality.
We used to feel a little superior to the forces. There was a block of flats we used to pass and they all had the same curtains?
Somehow we survived.

As with any married quarter new occupants could decorate the place how they wanted to if they were daft enough. (Most people I knew would go mad and slap individuality on the fire place wall with chocolate brown paint (70s) or a roll of wallpaper). Obviously the quarter had to be returned to its original decor before outmuster and at your own expense of course.

..

I ve never been to a John Lewis shop

I remember reading that Theresa May did not redecorate the flat when she became PM, and when you think about it, she was not there long enough to do it anyway. The JL decor Symonds was so rude about was down to Samantha Cameron.

I think the re-vamp looks like a very tacky film set.

What really annoys me is the thought of someone spending £58,000 on refurnishing (and it is rumoured that far more than that was spent). Two reports on the ITV News have shown people living in the most horrendous conditions - their walls black with mold and damp everywhere. One woman living in these circumstances was dying with cancer. It was very sad to think that her last months would be spent in such appalling conditions. Apparently ITV has had hundreds of letters and photos showing tenants living in similar conditions.

I am sure May's taste would be more traditional than a younger person might like, but this is, I believe, a house that comes rent free. If the furnishings and decor aren't to the new occupants' taste then they should foot the bill for changing them.

I detect a note of snobbery in Carrie Simmonds' comment since John Lewis's market is probably more aligned with the aspiring middle classes than the seriously wealthy. She sounds like a nightmare but then I find it hard to believe that a nice person would be attracted to Johnson.