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?

Although i guess we still have a massive m&s, a really nice house of frazers and a john lewis that has nice things . I guess we are lucky but its the smaller individual stores i miss.

As a teenager in the 90s and early 00s, pilot for their two for whatever offer, little halter and keyhole tops for nights out. Bay trading for bright bejewelled "going out" tops. Select for cheap heels to be ruined by spilled reef and mashed up chips. Woolworths for the epic pick n mix and Kookai or Morgan for something "sophisticated". Bright coloured handbags in Jane Norman. Celebrate a successful Saturday shopping trip with a bowl of noodles and Fanta from Singapore Sam's.

Dolcis shoes were the height of sophistication. I remember a shop called Bow Bangles that was a bit like Claire’s but they did these faux-leather wrist cuffs personalised with your name in silver letter beads. Such a must-have item.

Used to buy things to “decorate” my room from the Au Naturel section of Internacionale - inflatable chairs/cushions/photo frames and those little candles that floated around in a bowl of water! Lava lamps or glitter lamps too.

Always a trip to Woolies for pic n mix or Tongue Painter lollies to give ourselves blue/red/green tongues.

BHS Belfast was brilliant...it was two shops joined by a bridge upstairs so it had about 4 doors in and out. It was great as a shortcut and had a fabulous cheese counter.
My granny worked in Clerys in Dublin in the office which I imagine was a fabulous job.

I also loved Past Times. Also I used to love the old Body Shop. Going in a getting a mini basket and filling it with bath balls, small scented soaps and getting them to make it up into a gift.
Being able to spend your pocket money on Japanese face grains (or something). They used to do tiny pots of things which were perfect for teenagers.
We’d head into town on a Saturday. Buy a lipstick from Barry M and maybe some face glitter. Stop in Body Shop and get a couple of bath balls and a lemon soap and of course spray ourselves in Dewberry (me), White Musk (my best friend) and Fuzzy Peach (other best friend) - get home and my dad would say “phew you smell like a tart’s handbag” 🥰😁

Topshop Oxford Circus would be a full day out. You could spend hours in there!

I also liked Debenhams. I got my bridesmaid dresses in there and they were lovely.

The nostalgia for Past Times is quite ironic/meta isn’t it!

Actually, DD got a strawberry body spray from the Body Shop for her birthday from one of her friends and the smell is exactly the same as the strawberry shaped clear soaps they used to do - took me right back to the early 90s!

Kids of today will never understand the madness of Argos in the run up to Christmas, watching and waiting for your item to appear on the conveyer belt!

Most of the shops mentioned already, no (Debenhams was always awful).
I do miss proper high-quality House of Fraser, before Ashley took over. Dickins & Jones in Regent St was lovely, too.
Most chain stores are/were underwhelming, but it's a shame there aren't more good independents.

I really miss Habitat!

We had a huge one right in our city centre shopping mall and it was so inspiring to wander round - it was a staple of winter Saturdays when our DCs were young.

We only ever bought lamps, cushions and throws etc though, and I suspect most customers were like us so I can see why it didn't survive. The actual furniture was very overpriced and IKEA was the beginning of the end.

@TheMainlySilentFrog I miss Borders too! I remember first discovering the one in York and it was like Fox’s Books from You’ve Got Mail! They had a Cafe Nero I think and a fantastic World Cinema DVD section.

Has anyone mentioned Mothercare (fairly recently disappeared) , Toys are Us and Early Learning Centre? Frequented those shops when my now young adult DC were little. I probably contributed to their demise though as I did my in the flesh research (window shopping) and then looked elsewhere for cheaper....

The Allders cafe was amazing!

I could cry when I see high streets and shopping centres now. My local mall is almost completely empty now - just a few “pop-up” shops like a Christmas tat one.

I loved Chelsea Girl, Clock House, Miss Selfridge as a teen. Never really liked department stores, although that’s where you could get a cup of coffee. My dc are incredulous that back in the day a coffee was to be had in a department store, a furniture shop or a tea rooms (or caff if you were so inclined). But you would never linger - it just wasn’t done.

Allders also used to have a toasted sandwich cafe. I loved that.

Van Allen's and What Every Woman Wants.

I used to work in Past Times as a student! It was lovely - full of people who loved the products and were looking for gifts and happy to be shopping there. I’d always read the catalogues obsessively and was thrilled to get a job when I moved to the big city for uni.

The big Paperchase on Tottenham Court Road.

Piece Of Cake, Ponti’s. Olden days Pret / the baguette place that was in every train station. Allders cafe, too!

I didn’t know the big Paperchase had gone!

All the Paperchases have gone. Tesco owns the brand now and you can only buy it in their stores.

😂😂 Quite!

I grew up in a pretty small town and me and my mates would spend all day Saturday in town trying stuff on, following random boys around, eating macaroni cheese and chips in the biggest BHS restaurant I've ever known.

It was a different world. Just in terms of shoes, there were 5 indie shops, Jones, M&S, BHS, Debenhams and an indie department store. Now there is M&S and Clarks.

I miss what now seems like mind-boggling choice back then. I've started to make my own clothes again because im so fed up of my choice being 1) order 10 things online in the hope that 1 will fit (and be seriously out of pocket until the 9 rejects are refunded) or 2) shop in store at M&S.😂

Tori, I’m relegated to M&S now. And all of the old stuff in my wardrobe (any of it that still fits!). So much nice clothes back then…

So many! All the old shoe shops, Dolcis, Lilley and Skinner, the esteemed Ravel for something a bit more funky. Always went home with the right coloured polish to keep your shoes shiny, obsolescence hadn’t really kicked in then. Oh and Tammy Girl in Ealing, and Etam with the little counters for tiny badges and pocket money jewellery, that was in the late 70s.
Still missing all of them! And Borders, never bettered especially with a lovely Paperchase concession. Can’t pass our empty Wilkos without wanting to cry 😢