Revelations that a fifth of former BHS stores remain empty on the fifth anniversary of the chain’s closure suggest gaps left by closed-down department stores on UK high streets and in shopping centres may become permanent.
Out of BHS’s 167 stores, 35 are still unoccupied five years after their doors closed for the final time in August 2016, according to research conducted for the Guardian by the Local Data Company (LDC).
Kirkcaldy, Stevenage, Huddersfield, Hull and Ipswich are among the many places that have not managed to find an occupier for their former BHS store.
Just over half (55%) of former BHS stores are occupied, representing 92 sites – with some taken over by other retailers, while others have become adventure parks, according to an analysis of the former BHS store estate. The branch of BHS in Falkirk is to become a temporary jobcentre to help people affected by the pandemic to find work.
The number of department stores in the UK began to decline even before the closure of BHS and has slumped by a third in the past six years, as several high-profile names, including Debenhams, have shuttered, tumbling from 1,436 branches at the end of 2015 to 947 by August 2021.
Since the demise of BHS, the pandemic and months of shop closures during successive lockdowns have accelerated consumers’ switch to online shopping and increased the pressure on struggling department stores.
The number of other retailers willing to take on large department store units, which often cost a lot to rent, has been shrinking, according to Lucy Stainton, commercial director at the LDC.
“As time passes, units can become increasingly challenging to let, as they often require significant capital expenditure in order to rejuvenate the space or redevelop it for another use entirely,” she said.
“Since December 2020, 120 ex-Debenhams stores have come on to the market, which means there are now many more of these large retail units than demand from retailers requires.”
BHS collapsed into administration in April 2016, with the loss of 11,000 jobs, after the company ran out of money. The 88-year-old retailer had been owned for just a year by the serial bankrupt Dominic Chappell, who had bought it for £1 from Sir Philip Green. The chain’s failure became one of the biggest business scandals in recent years.
In the years since BHS’s closure, 14% of the department store’s branches have been demolished, and 10% have either been split up or merged with a different shop.
Meanwhile, the high street stalwart Debenhams, which could trace its history back 240 years, closed its doors in May after falling into administration for the second time during the pandemic.
Although it has not been long since the last Debenhams branches shut for good, some are being taken over by the retailer Next’s new brand, the Beauty Hall by Next, in Reading, Leicester and Glasgow, among others.
Meanwhile, more inventive transformations of the chain’s stores are also taking place. The 100,000 sq ft former home of the retailer in Wandsworth in south London has become a leisure venue, run by Gravity, offering one of the UK’s first electric go-karting tracks, with bars, crazy golf, e-sports and bowling replacing racks of clothes and home furnishings.
Despite these new leases of life for former department stores, the challenge is building for property owners and local authorities, as the number of vacant retail units continues to rise.
“Landlords and local councils are becoming increasingly creative when looking for ways to utilise their space,” said Stainton. “This is important in order to maintain footfall across high streets and to protect retailers that are continuing to operate around these vacated units.”
