Retailer Marks & Spencer is to scrap its Lifestore concept less than six months after it was introduced.

About 190 staff at the £14m Lifestore in Gateshead, north-east England, will be redeployed to ordinary M&S branches by next January.

The Lifestore, which includes a John Pawson-designed show home that was reviewed in Building on 6 March, was an attempt to rebrand M&S as an aspirational store.

The decision to close it follows a review called for by Stuart Rose, M&S chief executive, following the departures of Luc Vandevelde, the chairman, Roger Holmes, the chief executive, and Vittorio Radice, the executive director who championed the concept of Lifestores.

Since taking over, Rose has faced a management challenge of its own from retail mogul Philip Green.

Rose said: “This was a bold experiment but one that no longer fits into the company's strategy for the future.”

Lifestores planned for Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, and Thurrock, Essex, are being scrapped.