Harvey Nichols enacts temporary store and restaurant shut-down

Harvey Nichols has announced that all of its stores stores and restaurants will close temporarily as a result of the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic.

The luxury department store chain has a flagship in London's Knightsbridge, as well as branches in Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Edinburgh and Dublin. It also owns the OXO Tower restaurant in London.

It made the announcement on its social channels and it is the latest of London's most famous landmark department stores to announce a temporary closure. No estimated open date has been given.

Selfridges is closed until further notice, as is Fenwick, while Liberty has said it will be closed for "at least three weeks".

At the time of writing Harrods remained open but was operating reduced trading hours and had closed all of its restaurants. However staff are petitioning for a full shut-down and have set up an online petition urging the department store to follow the example of its rivals. The petition was begun five days ago and had more than 3,200 signatures by the morning of 20 March.