Nostalgia for high street shops of the past

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I'm feeling nostalgic. I'm struggling to find a winter coat and I just KNOW I would have found the perfect one in BHS. I also loved their underwear, thermals, slippers, pyjamas, dressing gowns, simple but good quality tops and jumpers and Christmas bits and bobs. My local also had a affordable but great restaurant with a little play area and decent loos. Dh and I used to take the dc there for breakfast on Saturdays as a treat.

Anyone else feeling nostalgic for long gone shops?

Loving the love for Past Times. Got the most fabulous dresser in there years ago and still love it.

Really miss Debenhams too.

Gosh yes it was, wasn’t it! John Rocha and Matthew Williamson. Can’t remember any others!

Those were the days!

I really liked it too.

Debenhams. I loved it especially at Christmas. Our local store was always so beautifully decorated.
I miss BHS, C&A and Woolworths as well but the loss of Debenhams is the most painful.

@LightDrizzle I got my going away dress at Droopy and Brown's too! I loved that shop. The Laura Ashley shop next door (?) made really pretty head dresses for my bridesmaids too. Both gone, both missed.

Also Past Times as many pp have said. DH still laments he can't go there looking for presents for me.

Also Woolies and, if you know the West Midlands, Beatties department stores.

@LightDrizzle Oh and Yes to Bettys! That's still there and thriving, thank goodness.

All Debenhams have closed here in England too

Snob. Curtess Shoes. Panache.

A recent casualty - Cath Kidston shops. We've also recently lost our Joules store in my town and I'm gutted. I know there are still some about but the loss of Joules & CK has meant that there's barely anywhere decent to shop in, in my town now. Gutted.

I also hugely miss The Body Shop of the nineties. Back when it was about conservation. It was totally different back then, to how it is now.

I don't miss any chain stores whatsoever and much prefer online shopping and independent shops.

I miss Dolcis, my first Saturday job was there, I spent all my wages on new shoes. The quality of most of them were really good as were the bags, a lifelong shoe lover started there!

Also Farnons and Wengers department stores in Newcastle, I also had a soft spot for Littlewoods, all those flat display desk kind of things with jumpers and the like all folded up in bags. They used to sell food as well.

In my teens , miss Selfridge ( when it was within Selfridges) . Warehouse in my 20s oasis until covid killed them .. HMV Oxford street I have listed days in there .. in fact I miss all of Oxford street/ Tottenham Court Road in the late 80s early 90s

Yes and Morgan

Another vote for BHS. They were great for school uniforms and 'character' clothes - my younger son was a huge fan of a kids' programme called Underground Ernie and BHS was the only place I ever found t-shirts, pyjamas etc.

I still miss Borders. Spent hours browsing, then flicking through my purchases in the coffee shop. They were always open late too.

@PabloandGustheGreySquirrels I thought the UK still had some Debenhams...it was handy to have all concessions together for interview clothes and wedding clothes etc.
Being able to try on three sizes was good.
My kids in their late twenties have got fed up with online.

I’ve never enjoyed shopping. I’ll get my coat …….

C&A. I had a lovely blue/green sea print skirt with matching top that had a row of seashell buttons on one shoulder. I wore it so much it fell apart, but frankly it was so useful it was my go-to 'Spring is here!' work outfit (it was a bit too floaty and light weight for winter), always wore it at the very start of spring and then all summer, and I'd just be packing it away as the clocks change. Wore it for best part of 15-20 years though!
I have kept the buttons, might make a replacement if I find a suitable fabric. It was a floaty but reasonable quality/weight polyester, a bit like this print but with fronds of wafting green seaweed rather than chunky florets.

I'm still wearing a lovely fleecy winter dressing gown that I bought from La Senza years ago

Dolcis , Lilley & Skinner - both lovely shoe shops in Oxford Street
BHS - still using sheets and towels I bought there.

I hate online shopping. You don’t know what you’re getting in quality or structure. Maybe if I was younger and my body was still pre kids I would like online shopping more.

Places like Debenhams with the concession stores made jean’s shopping way easier. Pick up a few different brands and buy the ones that were flattering.

BHS homewares. I used to visit Belfast and pop in.
The Laura Ashley shop on Grafton Street Dublin.
House of Fraser Dublin
Debenhams Dublin.
Woolworths Dublin
Clerys department store Dublin. Lots of little concession shops there- great choice.

I really miss department stores, woolies, bhs, C&A and Chelsea girl

BHS and Woolies. I managed to get some BHS PJs from ebay and they're perfect for me.

I miss the 'original' incarnations of Warehouse (Jeff Banks), Wallis, Next in their South Molton Street days, Topshop pre PG, Allders Croydon, any of the Oxford Street department stores and their sales, especially Selfridges, which was not the hugely expensive store of today and their trendier Miss Selfridges department, local small boutiques dotted all over and selling interesting brands you'd never see elsewhere, Grants Shoes in South London, or Russell and Bromley (still OK but no where near the selection of old), even my visits to the M&S stores in Oxford Street to buy items not sold elsewhere (although they are doing better imo this year). So many stores really, with what is now being a poor reflection of what was. Clothing is really an area we have not progressed in, but regressed.

I used to love habitat in Glasgow, just off the motorway. It had such brilliant designs. Also loved miss selfridge in sauchiehall st. And ravel ,top shop, intetnationale and gap on argyle st.

Glasgow was the best place ever for shopping, its shit now.