Colleagues at the John Lewis at home store in Ipswich will be joining in national celebrations next month to mark the 150th anniversary of the John Lewis business.

Starting on Saturday, May 3, the shop at Futura Park, will be hosting a number of activities and charity initiatives, working in partnership with Barnardo’s.

Workers at the store ? who are known as “partners”, to reflect the employee-owned status of the John Lewis Partnership, of which the John Lewis deparment stores and Waitrose supermarket chain are both part ? will be supporting the Manningtree Children’s Centre which provides health, social care and early education services for children under the age of five.

The Ipswich branch will be hosting fun activies over the three-day Bank Holiday weekend, such as a “Memory Match” game and cupcake decorating. There will also be a facepainter on site on the Saturday and Sunday.

The store’s electrical department has also teamed up with the iconic Henry vacuum cleaner brand to offer John Lewis customers the opportunity to buy a “John” or a “Lewis” cleaner, while its home department’s design studio will pay homage to the brand’s design history by taking key heritage prints from the archives and using them on new, modern products.

The week will also see the launch of a series of national events, as well a special 150th anniversary television advert. An interactive exhibition will open in the Oxford Street store, showcasing everything from the original book of the store’s first taking, to a glimpse into the setting of founder John Spedan Lewis’s office where the John Lewis Partnership was born. In a first for a retailer, the Oxford Street flagship will also open its roof. Working with Tony Woods, Royal Horticultural Society National Young Designer of the Year, and the partnership’s own gardeners from the Longstock estate, one of the capital’s largest urban rooftops will be transformed.

From a single draper’s shop opened in 1864, John Lewis has grown in to a £4billion international business, operating 41 John Lewis shops across the UK (31 department stores and 10 John Lewis at home branches) as well as the johnlewis.com website.