London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Oct 25, 2025

UK loses 83% of department stores since BHS collapsed

UK loses 83% of department stores since BHS collapsed

The UK has lost 83% of its main department stores in the five years since the collapse of the BHS chain.

The figure highlights the extent of the upheaval in the High Street as the Covid pandemic sped up changes in shopping habits.

The data, compiled by commercial property information firm CoStar Group, also reveals that more than two-thirds of these shops remain unoccupied.

Some 237 big stores have yet to be taken over by a new business.

"The data undoubtedly highlights the acceleration of change in the retail sector in recent years, which the pandemic has only exacerbated," said CoStar Group's head of analytics, Mark Stansfield.

CoStar tracked the UK's largest chains, from BHS and Beales to Debenhams and House of Fraser, from 2016 to the present day.

Five years ago, they had 467 stores between them. Now, however, only 79 are left.


CoStar Group also examined what had happened to the 388 that had closed.

Although 237 are currently sitting empty, 52 already have either firm plans in place or early planning approval for a change of use or repurposing. The research was done in July.


Mr Stansfield told the BBC he believed the pace of change would soon step up.

"We are increasingly seeing forward-thinking real estate owners getting ahead of the problem and reshaping what are key assets in our town centres to provide a focal point for regeneration," he said.

"I think we'll see many more plans come to light in the coming months. With these store closures come new opportunities."

No quick fix


Department stores have long been the cornerstone of UK shopping areas. Many are in purpose-built shopping centres, while some occupy historic buildings.

Figuring out what to do with all this redundant space is one of the biggest challenges for landlords, as well as for the town centres that host those properties.

BHS is a good illustration of why there is no quick fix for the problem. Five years after the retailer ceased trading, a quarter of its former outlets have still failed to attract new tenants.


In 2016, the BBC visited the old BHS store on Edinburgh's Princes Street, one of the biggest in the chain. The owners already had new ideas for the site - and crucially, they decided to turn it into a building with a mix of different uses.

Its six floors, once riddled with asbestos, have slowly been transformed. The old staff locker rooms and half of the building have been turned into hotel bedrooms by Premier Inn.

The former BHS store on Princes Street in Edinburgh has been repurposed

They're also putting the finishing touches to a state-of the art office right at the top, while the basement will hopefully become a bowling alley. There will also eventually be retail, just a lot less than before.

"It costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time to turn these large format spaces into new uses," says the architect behind the project, Frank Hinds of CDA.

"In development terms, we did this in a relatively short space of time."

When it comes to repurposing, says Mr Hinds, the stumbling blocks are often financial. Investors have to be able to make a return to justify the huge investment. Luckily for this BHS, it's on a world-class street.

"The viability comes from the location and the desire that people have to be in that location," he adds.

For Premier Inn, the hotelier involved, it was an opportunity too good to miss. "Buildings like this don't come along very often with beautiful views across to the castle," says Valerie Graham, regional operations director.

Premier Inn's Valerie Graham: "Buildings like this don't come along very often"

"Seeing so many people get use of the space is just fantastic. And the demand is there. We're creating jobs too."

Edinburgh has lost four of its main department stores in the past few years, but, fortunately, there are solutions under way for all of them.

For instance, the former House of Fraser store at the other end of Princes Street is about to open its doors as the Johnnie Walker Whisky Experience.

Small town blues


Filling the gaps in smaller towns is a much greater challenge. In Dumfries, the old Debenhams store is still vacant.

It's the biggest retail unit in the town, with no takers so far for the space.

"It comes down to money," says Scott Mackay, who runs the Midsteeple Quarter, a local company founded to benefit the community.

Through crowdfunding, donations and public money, it's buying old, empty, shops and bringing them back to life with new tenants.

The community group is buying up shops around the historic Midsteeple in Dumfries

"This is a small rural town historically and there isn't the amount of money to be invested in Dumfries compared with our bigger cities. We stand or fall on our own two feet," he says.

Would he like to take on the former Debenhams site as well? "If we had the funding, absolutely we would take on a building like this," he says.

"I think it would make a great small boutique cinema or food court on the ground floor, with potentially residential on the upper floors."

Some of form of intervention is needed, he believes, to avoid the store sitting empty for years.

Debenhams is a more recent casualty of the changing High Street environment than BHS, having shut its last stores in May this year.

In all, 149 former Debenhams stores are currently vacant, as the data from CoStar Group shows.


CoStar Group's team has been scouring planning applications and talking to property agents on the ground as well as big landlords for this research, which is the most comprehensive picture to date on the huge structural changes to have hit this part of British retail.

The appetite for quality shop space hasn't completely diminished. For instance, Next has already taken space in Debenhams stores for its new beauty concept, while Mike Ashley is redeveloping or re-letting space for his Flannels brand.

But if BHS is anything to go by, reviving many of these these vast sites will take time, as well as some radical thinking.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
China and Russia Deploy Seductive Espionage Networks to Infiltrate U.S. Tech Sector
Apple’s ‘iPhone Air’ Collapses After One Month — Another Major Misstep for the Tech Giant
Graham Potter Begins New Chapter as Sweden Head Coach on Short-Term Deal
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa Alleges Poison Plot via Chocolate and Jam
Lakestar to Halt External Fundraising as Investor in Revolut and Spotify
U.S. Innovation Ranking Under Scrutiny as China Leads Output Outputs but Ranks 10th
Three Men Arrested in London on Suspicion of Spying for Russia
Porsche Reverses EV Strategy as New CEO Bets on Petrol and Hybrids
Singapore’s Prime Minister Warns of ‘Messy’ Transition to Post-American Global Order
Andreessen Horowitz Sets Sights on Ten-Billion-Dollar Fund for Tech Surge
US Administration Under President Donald Trump Reportedly Lifts Ban on Ukraine’s Use of Storm Shadow Missiles Against Russia
‘Frightening’ First Night in Prison for Sarkozy: Inmates Riot and Shout ‘Little Nicolas’
White House Announces No Imminent Summit Between Trump and Putin
US and Qatar Warn EU of Trade and Energy Risks from Tough Climate Regulation
Apple Challenges EU Digital Markets Act Crackdown in Landmark Court Battle
Nicolas Sarkozy begins five-year prison term at La Santé in Paris
Japan stocks surge to record as Sanae Takaichi becomes Prime Minister
This Is How the 'Heist of the Century' Was Carried Out at the Louvre in Seven Minutes: France Humiliated as Crown with 2,000 Diamonds Vanishes
China Warns UK of ‘Consequences’ After Delay to London Embassy Approval
France’s Wealthy Shift Billions to Luxembourg and Switzerland Amid Tax and Political Turmoil
"Sniper Position": Observation Post Targeting 'Air Force One' Found Before Trump’s Arrival in Florida
Shouting Match at the White House: 'Trump Cursed, Threw Maps, and Told Zelensky – "Putin Will Destroy You"'
Windows’ Own ‘Siri’ Has Arrived: You Can Now Talk to Your Computer
Thailand and Singapore Investigate Cambodian-Based Prince Group as U.S. and U.K. Sanctions Unfold
‘No Kings’ Protests Inflate Numbers — But History Shows Nations Collapse Without Strong Executive Power
Chinese Tech Giants Halt Stablecoin Launches After Beijing’s Regulatory Intervention
Manhattan Jury Holds BNP Paribas Liable for Enabling Sudanese Government Abuses
Trump Orders Immediate Release of Former Congressman George Santos After Commuting Prison Sentence
S&P Downgrades France’s Credit Rating, Citing Soaring Debt and Political Instability
Ofcom Rules BBC’s Gaza Documentary ‘Materially Misleading’ Over Narrator’s Hamas Ties
Diane Keaton’s Cause of Death Revealed as Pneumonia, Family Confirms
Former Lostprophets Frontman Ian Watkins Stabbed to Death in British Prison
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
Outsider, Heroine, Trailblazer: Diane Keaton Was Always a Little Strange — and Forever One of a Kind
Dramatic Development in the Death of 'Mango' Founder: Billionaire's Son Suspected of Murder
Two Years of Darkness: The Harrowing Testimonies of Israeli Hostages Emerging From Gaza Captivity
EU Moves to Use Frozen Russian Assets to Buy U.S. Weapons for Ukraine
Europe Emerges as the Biggest Casualty in U.S.-China Rare Earth Rivalry
HSBC Confronts Strategic Crossroads as NAB Seeks Only Retail Arm in Australia Exit
U.S. Chamber Sues Trump Over $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Shenzhen Expo Spotlights China’s Quantum Step in Semiconductor Self-Reliance
China Accelerates to the Forefront in Global Nuclear Fusion Race
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
Australia’s Wedgetail Spies Aid NATO Response as Russian MiGs Breach Estonian Airspace
×