Afflecks

The business started to decline after the Second World War as shopping moved away from Oldham Street, and in the 1950s Debenhams added the store to their portfolio.

Debenhams also owned another Manchester department store, Pauldens, and the continued decline of the area led to the closure of Affleck & Brown in 1973.

[4] Affleck's Palace first opened in 1982 by James and Elaine Walsh with an ethos of offering a safe environment for entrepreneurs to start out with affordable rent and no long-term contracts.

[9] Following the change in management a representative of the property developer is quoted as saying: Never in our 30-year history have we bought one of our customers' businesses but Afflecks is a Manchester icon that we wanted to protect.

[12] Afflecks was damaged in July 2013 by a fire that started in the storeroom of a shop in Oldham Street,[13] but did not close down and celebrated its 40th anniversary in February 2022.

Affleck's with the Tib Street horn in the foreground, Northern Quarter.
The Tib Street side of the building, June 2011. The artworks and mosaics have been removed and replaced with boarding displaying details about the store. The silver tree was a new installation in 2011