Department stores could be given protected status

Department stores across the UK could be given protected status following a new review of high streets from Historic England. 

It comes as many department store units have been left empty following the collapse of such chains as BHS and Debenhams, which fell into administration in recent years, with closures exacerbated by the pandemic and rise of online shopping.

According to figures from campaign group C20, in the past seven years alone, 52% of all department stores have closed in the UK. It estimated this has produced as much as 2 million sqm of vacant retail space.

With news of an upcoming review into these buildings, a Historic England spokesperson said: “We are researching the history of department stores to provide a national overview of the key architectural and historic phases of their development.

“This is in response to the changes in retailing which have seen stores close and an increase in requests for them to be considered for listing. The work is at an early stage so we don’t yet know if it will lead to any proposals to list further examples.”

It comes as groups such as C20 and SAVE Britain’s Heritage have campaigned that demolition should be seen as a “last resort” for such buildings. 

Earlier this month, property developers and a Conservative MP told the Communities Secretary that SAVE has their support, and that a “new national approach to construction is needed in the face of the growing climate crisis”.

They argued that demolition should be seen as a last resort and retrofit “must become the industry’s default”.

They are among several experts who have written in support of SAVE Britain’s Heritage to Greg Clarke and the Planning Inspector ahead of a public inquiry into M&S’s plans to demolish its landmark building on Oxford Street. 

Later this year, SAVE will be facing M&S over the plans at the two-week inquiry in October, leading the case for retention and retrofit. 

Meanwhile, C20 previously launched the C20 Department Stores campaign, which asked C20 members and followers to alert the group to 20th Century store buildings at risk in city centres, high streets and shopping precincts. 

Commenting on the campaign, it said: “Beyond providing a palpable sense of the affection with which these local landmarks are held, the deluge of tip-offs and leads received from across the whole country, led to one of the most sizeable bodies of casework we’ve ever tackled on a single campaign.” 

Of the buildings nominated through its campaign, 25% of the stores at risk are in Yorkshire and the North West, while 18% are in the South West, 17% in the South East and 15% in the East Midlands, “reinforcing how this is a nationwide problem, not confined purely to the larger cities or a few regions”, according to C20.