Which high Street shops do you miss the most past /present

It is forty miles to our nearest high street shop so do not miss any of them

looking through all theses shops it makes you realise just what has gone,all, or in the main, thanks to the internet, amazon etc

Oh, gosh yes, so all of the stores/shops mentioned here above. Plus Debenhams that are currently going to be no longer. Just having walked past after the first lockdown our nearest Debenhams (which they had announced this one would not ?re-open at all then), and looking through the window into a big empty space was so upsetting.

Keffie12 I quite agree that most closed because they were no longer profitable. But some of us were the people still patronising them when others had drifted away - for me I was a regular customer at East right until the end and bought up items in the closing down sale.

In other cases it is sheer nostalgia. We had drifted from shopping in a store because we were now in a different age group, or they didn't keep up with the times or, as with Laura Ashley and Cath Kidson, once the brand was sold on to 'private venture capitalists' or some other such group and the eponymous founder was no longer involved, the whole brand loses its way. When Laura Ashley died her husband took over and he had a very sure eye, but the children lacked that certain something their parents had and sold it on and it was a basket case ever after.

It is happening to M&S, once the founding family was no longer involved it has staggered from problem to problem.

It won't be a popular opinion however I don't miss any of them. That's the whole reason they closed as people didn't use them enough.

As far as I'm aware alot of them are still selling online. I know that is the case with Cath Kitson that our DiL loves

Aepgirl, in the 1950s my school uniform came from Jacksons and when life took me by a circuitous route back to Reding DC's school uniforms came from them in the 1980s.

The problem was that Jackson's didn't move with the times. As Reading and East Berkshire became more and more affluent, I used to think that Jacksons should have built on its strengths, like haberdashery and developed itself as a more upmarket store with excellent craft and haberdashery and designer clothes.

When I was a child my mother went to Reading for school uniform and underwear, but Oxford for anything really nice. It was the same in the 1980s. I think it was a missed opportunity.

Used to love Habitat's discount store in Manchester. You could get fabulous bargains for home and garden.

We had a lovely department store in the largest near town - Jackson’s - it was quite old-fashioned but had a fantastic knitting department with ladies who could give advice on knitting problems, etc. We often hear people say ‘we could have got that in Jackson’s’.

Oh and in the same vein - anybody know Monika practically opposite Hampstead Heath station?
I used to love browsing there when Paw was in the Royal Free or at a clinic - and always found something I liked.
Nice to see things not usually found on the High Street.

Too many to mention and indeed most people have mentioned them already.
But I really miss a small independent clothes shop in a nearby small town called J’s (or Jays?)
Ginny may know where I mean. Its owner had an eye for smart, often quirky, unusual things for grown up women - labels like Adini, and I think even Two Danes and Grizas.
She was not cheap, cheap but very reasonably priced and I can honestly say I never went in without finding something I liked (and usually bought)

Anyone remember a shoe shop called Sasha (don’t think that’s spelled correctly) gorgeous colourful suede platforms

Freeman Hardy Willis
Stead and Simpson
Chelsea Girl
Etam
Principles
Clock House C&A
The Pier
Comet

Laura Ashley

BHS their shoes always fitted me and I could wear them straight away no issues. Always bought my winter boots from there, never found any as neat, comfortable without looking frumpy and just the right height heel. Loved their coats as well?

Yes arsenal67 I used to work not far from snob boutique in Cambridge many years ago

Martin Ford

Oh yes Laughterlines Marshall a&, Snelgrove was very posh.

Arsenal67
I remember Snob, I bought a big furry coat in there, in probably ‘71?
They seem quite fashionable again now.

Miss East most of all, the new online store is not half as good.
Also miss The Pier, especially at Christmas .

We had a John Lewis 'At Home' (no clothes, beauty, etc ) open in our town about 4 years ago - lovely to browse in, or buy online and pick up there, plus a great cafe.. It closed after the first lockdown - I miss that terribly.

Laughterlines

Kate1949

In Birmingham we had The Beehive and Marshall and Snelgrove.

In the last war my Mum was an Air Raid Personnel warden in Birmingham. Marshall and Snelgrove had their shop windows blown out by a bomb. My Mum had to walk up and down to prevent thieves stealing stuff. As a schoolgirl I was nervous to go in there as the shop was so posh and the assistants so heavily made up and snooty. There used to be a lady in the window repairing nylon stockings.....

Laughterlines.
Kate1949.

I had a temporary job for a few weeks only in the summer of 1967 in Marshal and Snelgrove in Oxford Street in their jewellery department. I enjoyed it and it helped pay the rent on the flat I shared with friends in Primrose Hill. The best years of my life, what fun we had and where I met DH. I had almost forgotten that very short period in my life. London was such a wonderful place to live at that time.
I wasn’t snooty at all?

tricia12

Biba

Those teeny skirts, loved Biba’s.

Definitely Woolies, I loved that shop! It had an atmosphere all its own and nothing else has ever compared with it.

Another vote here for Borders - I really miss this. Replaced by huge Tesco (did we really need another supermarket?)

Also like many others, Woolworths. And local non-chain store Boswells.

Lewis's and blacklers in liverpool. woolies - i remember in the hot summer of 1976 they had a complete counter filled with strawberries. macfisheries. i also miss mfi - ist home furnished from there with discount coupons from newspapers and after divorce furnished with more upmarket furniture