THERE are few sights in Liverpool currently more depressing than the empty stores in Renshaw Street, which once hustled and bustled with DIY enthusiasts searching for the latest must-have handyman’s gadget in Rapid Hardware, before the store successfully decamped to the old George Henry Lee building in town.

But there has always been the recompense that the area is on the verge of regeneration, that those dusty stores should soon be hustling and bustling again. Only now there is another sobering thought to factor into the equation – how will the revamped, regenerated Central Village plan look without the towering presence of Lewis’s?

After surviving the recessionary travails of the past, it came as something of a shock yesterday when management said the iconic store would not be renewing its lease in June.

Liverpool without Lewis’s, after all, is almost as bad as Liverpool without its Liver Bird.

But the announcement highlights a situation which many traders at the Lewis’s end of town have long feared. With the opening of Liverpool One, more and more shoppers have gravitated down to the Lord Street/ Paradise Street area, far away from Lewis’s, leaving the giant department store and all its neighbours somewhat detached from the main retail hub.

That is why so much is hanging on the Central Village project, taking in the Central Station and Renshaw Street areas.

People were lured to Liverpool One by the prospect of something new, exciting and interesting – and the same should be equally as true about Central Village. It would, however, be even more exciting and interesting to see Lewis’s return – and that, enticingly enough, has not been completely ruled out.