British High Street Death List 2021

[Zetetic]

I often (2-3x a month, I reckon) look at an abandoned or soon-to-be abandoned department store and think "that'd make quite a nice party HQ when the revolution comes".

Often have a neo-classical or modernist grandeur that tasteless worshippers of power like myself lap up.

[steveh]

How would a department store be converted into flats? There'd be no windows!

Think I read that the government a couple of years ago reduced the requirement for windows in the planning regulations. There's certainly a few new conversions into hotels where the rooms don't have any.

John Lewis have a planning application in for turning the upper part of their Oxford St store into offices. Can't see the Debenham's store staying entirely as a shop but there's now an oversupply of London offices and with 700,000 people having left London due to Covid and possibly unable to return due to Brexit it's maybe not a contender for flats either.

[idunnosomename]

Sadly you've got more chance of shitting in the Queens handbag

if you really put the effort in im sure you can

[Icehaven]

How would a department store be converted into flats? There'd be no windows!

Think I read that the government a couple of years ago reduced the requirement for windows in the planning regulations. There's certainly a few new conversions into hotels where the rooms don't have any.

John Lewis have a planning application in for turning the upper part of their Oxford St store into offices. Can't see the Debenham's store staying entirely as a shop but there's now an oversupply of London offices and with 700,000 people having left London due to Covid and possibly unable to return due to Brexit it's maybe not a contender for flats either.

I can imagine the enormous vacant ex-Ikea in Coventry is either going to be student accommodation (of which there's already famously a shitload, and I don't know how Covid has affected demand for it but it can't have increased, surely) or flats. Or torn down, because there's no way in hell there's any retailers that could fill it, unless every remaining shop in Coventry moves in there and then they can turn the entire city center into student accommodation.

[dissolute ocelot]

How would a department store be converted into flats? There'd be no windows!

It's no different to a warehouse conversion. Most of which aren't like the cool lofts you see on tv, but lots of shitty flats with long thin rooms and a little porthole-style window embedded deep in one wall. I think you still need some kind of window in living- and bedrooms, and preferably you should be able to fit through it in event of fire, but kitchens and bathrooms can get by with an extractor fan and no outside access.

But while there are still some amazing Victorian/Edwardian shops, most are concrete monstrosities that nobody will mind if you bulldoze it. They're already demolishing a lot of post-WW2 shopping centres. With a warehouse store that's all steel frame and panels on the outside, you could probably take it apart and move it to Xinjiang to reassemble it as a reeducation centre palatial Apple factory.

[Butchers Blind]

I too am puzzled how these stores could be converted into living accommodation. One of the Top Shop/Man stores near where I live have part of the shop below street level with no natural light. Maybe we'll become mole people.

[thecuriousorange]

I often (2-3x a month, I reckon) look at an abandoned or soon-to-be abandoned department store and think "that'd make quite a nice party HQ when the revolution comes".

Often have a neo-classical or modernist grandeur that tasteless worshippers of power like myself lap up.

Historically, buildings like that become a Wetherpoons.

[Fambo Number Mive]

When pubs are able to open again, how many people will there be per Wetherspoons? I imagine there will be one for every hundred people by 2023.

[Blue Jam]

I too am puzzled how these stores could be converted into living accommodation. One of the Top Shop/Man stores near where I live have part of the shop below street level with no natural light. Maybe we'll become mole people.

Luxury apartments above ground, affordable housing accessed via "poor doors" below:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/feb/02/penthouses-poor-doors-nine-elms-battersea-london-luxury-housing-development

[Captain Crunch]

But while there are still some amazing Victorian/Edwardian shops, most are concrete monstrosities that nobody will mind if you bulldoze it. They're already demolishing a lot of post-WW2 shopping centres. With a warehouse store that's all steel frame and panels on the outside, you could probably take it apart and move it to Xinjiang to reassemble it as a reeducation centre palatial Apple factory.

I don't care how sensible it is to get rid of these places I still mourn the loss of Dolphin Square in Weston, Grove Place in Eltham, Embassy court in Welling.  You know the style - central square for parking or a fountain, a ring of shops with flats above.  I'm not saying every single one should be listed but please can't we keep one or two?   

[Dex Sawash]

Need more indoor go-kart racing

[BlodwynPig]

Need more indoor go-kart racing

in 3D!

[Captain Crunch]

If you like nice big empty spaces they've just released some photos of The Kursaal in Southend:









And the best one:



Maybe Wetherspoons will buy it on the strength of the carpet alone? 

[Sebastian Cobb]

I too am puzzled how these stores could be converted into living accommodation. One of the Top Shop/Man stores near where I live have part of the shop below street level with no natural light. Maybe we'll become mole people.

A club I used to go to that was underneath a street-level bar, then with the dancefloor below that level (ground -2) had no windows and got turned into a hotel.

[Blue Jam]

The Kursaal? Massive.

[bgmnts]

I'd like to live in my local McDonalds but I'm just a fat cunt.

[petril]

The Kursaal? Massive.

get on the bus with me day saver

[Blue Jam]

Seriously, ta for those Kersaal pics Captain Crunch. Looks like an interesting space but also one it would be hard to do anything profitable with.

Bit like the old Odeon cinema in Edinburgh:

https://www.buildingsatrisk.org.uk/details/901887

There have been plenty of calls to preserve this nice old Art Deco building but so far no-one has found a viable way. It was bought by The G1 Group (booooooooo) who were planning to reopen it as a cinema, but iirc the damage caused by nesting pigeons was found to be too severe for them to do anything with the existing floors and interior walls. It's also been upgraded from a category B listed building to a category A one, and I think this means it can't simply be gutted to leave the Art Deco exterior wall remaining with a shiny new guano-free interior behind it. Bad time to be opening a cinema now anyway, and G1 are cheap bastards who were originally planning to lay off most of their staff before the furlough scheme was announced so I can't imagine the Odeon is a priority for them anymore.

The west half of the building is now luxury student accommodation (naturally) so I guess that side of the building may have been in a sufficiently poor state of repair to allow it to be transformed in such a way.

[Dex Sawash]

[Jasha]

Rather than dig out the old high st deaths thread I saw the Patisserie Valerie name in Sainsbury's again today. It used to be there before then disappeared when the shops went into administration but has now returned, don't know that I'll be spending £28 on a gateaux even if it is decorated with macarons though

[Captain Z]

Turning a closed IKEA into accommodation would be ideal, no refurbishment necessary.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Turning a closed IKEA into accommodation would be ideal, no refurbishment necessary.

Be a bastard going all round the place in the morning if you've got allocated digs near the entrance.

[Blue Jam]

I'd love to ride a bike round IKEA.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I wonder how long I could survive on cheap hotdogs, meatballs and Daim bars.

[paruses]

And the best one:



Maybe Wetherspoons will buy it on the strength of the carpet alone?

Thanks for The Kursaal pictures. Brought back many bad memories of Thursday night company bowling from my two years of working in Southend. Mad how obsessed they all were with it. I would paste a shudder emoji if I knew of one or how to.

Not a high Street death but The Penn Club round the corner from the British Museum is closing its doors after 100 years. The Bedford Estate won't give them any noticeable rent relief  (ca. 250k/year) and has "other plans" for the building. It's a great place to stay. Founded and run on Quaker lines. Always got to meet interesting people over breakfast. Not any more.

[dissolute ocelot]

French Connection for sale again, with a couple of companies who specialise in buying up brands considering an offer. Another of those brands I thought had vanished long ago; from the photo on the article they seem to be focusing on coffee rather than clothes.

[Blue Jam]

French Connection have been slowly dying for a while now. The Embra store closed years ago and I have only seen French Connection stuff in House of Fraser and John Lewis since, and occasionally in TK Maxx. Got a lovely big warm Great Plains jumper from the Maxx before lockdown and have been living in it all winter. I always liked their clothes but they were always a tiny bit too expensive. Admittedly they were good quality and lasted for ages but I could never afford to buy too much there.

Bit of a dated brand too I guess, a very 90's brand and while most of their stuff was tasteful and understated they kept that incongruously naff "FCUK" thing going for way too long. I suppose it was a bit of a masterstroke at the time and it evidently sold them a lot of t-shirts but they should have let it die along with Britpop.

With all the department stores fucked all the concessions they carry are going to be fucked too aren't they? That business model won't be viable much longer.

[Paul Calf]

I often (2-3x a month, I reckon) look at an abandoned or soon-to-be abandoned department store and think "that'd make quite a nice party HQ when the revolution comes".

Often have a neo-classical or modernist grandeur that tasteless worshippers of power like myself lap up.

I'd put money on a revival opf modernism. It only went out of fashion because of its association with Nazi Germany and eugenics and a soft spot for this sort of thing is no longer seen as an impediment to public office.

And there has to be a hipster backlash approaching from somewhere.

[Blue Jam]

Lots of Neo-Classical architecture in Embra's New Town, there's going to be a lot of Nazi-but-nice party HQs going spare.

[seepage]

French Connection have been slowly dying for a while now. The Embra store closed years ago and I have only seen French Connection stuff in House of Fraser and John Lewis since, and occasionally in TK Maxx. Got a lovely big warm Great Plains jumper from the Maxx before lockdown and have been living in it all winter. I always liked their clothes but they were always a tiny bit too expensive. Admittedly they were good quality and lasted for ages but I could never afford to buy too much there.

Bit of a dated brand too I guess, a very 90's brand and while most of their stuff was tasteful and understated they kept that incongruously naff "FCUK" thing going for way too long. I suppose it was a bit of a masterstroke at the time and it evidently sold them a lot of t-shirts but they should have let it die along with Britpop.

The Oxford St. branch seemed to have a permanent sale on since about 1997. The only FC good I own happens to be my favourite jumper, despite it bobbling to buggery after about two washes, probably 'cos it's viscose/rayon.