Once the focal point of cultural activities in Lucknow and a tryst between literary minds at work and nurturing bibliophiles — story of the famed British Book Depot concluded recently. On account of dwindling business, this chapter for Lucknowites has finally shut.

Arguably the City of Nawab's most swamped bookstore once, the iconic book depot was at the cynosure of the hustling Hazratganj. Established in 1930, the almost century-old bookstore brimmed with resources galore of knowledge always and remained a matter of utmost pride for city-ites.

The news has become almost heartrending for numerous generations of book lovers of Lucknow.

"It is heart-breaking. I would spent hours in the bookstore after school, perusing the Hardy Boys series and Enid Blyton's books," said a 41-year-old admirer of the store.

The British Book Depot in Lucknow was also extolled often for engulfing rare scores of books, manuscripts, lesser-read editions, and more. Moreover, eminent personalities like Jawahar Lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, among other names, have been known to have graced the book depot.

Opened by the late Shanti Prakash Kakkar some 93 years back, the responsibility of owning and running the store fell onto his son. Now 83-year-old Suraj Kakkar, who managed the store efficiently for all these decades, decided to shut the shop and donate the sea of books to schools and libraries. Book heads would never be deprived of the joy of reading in the old-school style, Kakkar said in an interview.

As a consequence of more people resorting to online reading and the tragedy that was the pandemic, Lucknowites bid adieu to the iconic shop.