For some customers, it was heartbreaking to watch the city institution close.

Ms Tambourini said: “You’ve got your regular customers, the ones that used to come in and give you chocolates, some of them were in tears.

“They’d been shopping there for 60 years and their mums used to bring them in as children. One woman was telling us that she remembered seeing Ken Dodd in the food hall.”

Now the business is closed, the former staff have a series of reunions planned to say goodbye.

“After the doors closed we went up to the coffee shop and had a couple of drinks for about an hour,” said Ms Tambourini.

Last night, the staff were meeting again at the Adelphi, with a further event at Yates planned for staff past and present on Friday night.

Now the building, and its notorious statue, which has stood on Ranelagh Street since 1856, is set to become a boutique hotel.

Earlier this year, owners, Merepark, unveiled £37m plans to develop Lewis’s into a hotel and office complex, with a small amount of retail space on the site.