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Although it plans to introduce new lifts and airconditioning this September the store has already been

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Although it plans to introduce new lifts and airconditioning this September, the store has already been left behind by swisher rivals in the area, including the department stores Selfridges and Dickens & Jones, which have spent huge sums on refurbishments.A £43m proposal to update the flagship Liberty store caused the family to fall out with its board three years go The family felt the plan was too expensive. The bust-up led to the ousting of Denis Cassidy as chairman at a shareholders' meeting in which the Stewart-Liberty family teamed up with the rebel shareholder Bryan Myerson.Mr Myerson, a South African, is not selling his 17 stake in Liberty. He will retain shares in the new company, which will seek a separate listing on the Alternative Investment Market in the summer.. When Arthur Liberty designed his Regent Street store in the 1920s he wanted an atmosphere that would encourage customers to feel they were walking round their own homes. It was an ethos Elizabeth Stewart-Liberty, wife of a former chairman and main shareholder, took to heart.

When Arthur Liberty designed his Regent Street store in the 1920s he wanted an atmosphere that would encourage customers to feel they were walking round their own homes. It was an ethos Elizabeth Stewart-Liberty, wife of a former chairman and main shareholder, took to heart. Staff knew she was not to be disturbed if she was found sitting on one of the beds writing letters. But from now on she will have to deal with her correspondence in her own home. The family's involvement with the 150-year-old store ended yesterday with the announcement they are selling their 20.7 per cent stake, which will net £15m. The store will be run by Marylebone, Warwick, Balfour, a property company.It marks the end of 10 years of feuding between family members and lately the family and directors. As one joke has it: "Why are the carpets fitted at Liberty? To hide the blood on the floor."Liberty was once a profitable retailer whose clientele valued beauty and quality over price but its traditional customers, the printed-headscarf set from the Home Counties, are vanishing. It is a far cry from when Arthur Liberty led the way in encouraging the Arts and Craft movement and developing Art Nouveau.

Proust bought his ties and George Bernard Shaw employed his designers. Isadora Duncan wore his scarves and Gilbert and Sullivan dressed their actors in his fabrics.Liberty started the store with a £2,000 loan from hisfather-in-law after his previous employers, the Great Shawl and Cloak Emporium in Regent Street, refused to give him a partnership. He set up Liberty across the road with a 16-year-old girl and a Japanese boy as staff. At the opening there were reports of baronets, architects and painters jostling to see the contents of a crate of Japanese fans.

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