Which defunct shops/restaurants do you miss the most?

[Hairbrush123]

For me, Topshop. Was really gutted when it closed down. Restaurant: Herman ze German. Expensive but always enjoyed the food!

Woolworths. I worked there and I loved it. They were pretty unbeatable for music and dvds but people still went to HMV. Really good for toys as well.

Definitely Warehouse and Oasis.

@MrsGarethSouthgate That's the one! But before it was the big amazing place on Hessle Road it was a tiny burger bar in the middle of town where we always went if we'd been shopping. Even my mother (who was and remains an appalling food snob) liked going there because it was so bloody good. The milkshakes were unbelievable too 😍

Christ, I've just realised that was probably forty years ago

I really feel sad seeing all of these names. My high street now is all vape shops and pop-up shitholes selling trollies, cheap luggage, and tatty rugs.

The swiss centre restaurant in Leicester Square Oh that brings back such good memories. I suppose 30 years from now our kids will be missing M&M World and Boohoo unlikely.
I just loathe how shit and fast and cheap everything is now.

Restaurant- Ma Potters. Lovely food.
Shops - C&A, BHS, Mk1, The Natural World.
No Disney store in our town, loved it, expensive but expected. And we used to have a Warner Bros shop.

Debenhams but not the recent version
Back in the 90s Pre Dc I used to but most of my work clothes from the Designers at Debenhams range
Before it closed Debenhams was tacky and grubby and I could never find anything nice there

@Superhanz

Leisure world in Belfast, I would love to bring my daughter there.

We all miss Leisure World, it was amazing.

YY to previous poster who mentioned Leisureworld in Belfast. It was always a joy going in there as a child, especially at Christmas. It was many a NI child's favourite place in the world. I always had to have one of those plastic tat filled eggs from the chicken prize machine outside 😁

Anderson & McAuley, again especially at Christmas. I always wanted to grow up to be like the well-to-do ladies who shopped there. It closed when I was 12. I do miss proper department stores.

Nectar. I think they were NI specific and similar to the Body Shop when it was good. I think they did mail order too.

Others have already been mentioned - Bay Trading Company, Snob, Past Times, etc. Places which only have an online presence now like Debenhams are definitely not the same, and it was a bit of an event going to the different Next shops (especially for their hot chocolate) in the late 80s. Not the same now. But I miss C&A most of all.

Benetton- loved their brightly coloured sweatshirts and jumpers

I just miss the high street shopping experience in general.

I mean I’m part of the problem, i was a pretty early adopter of online shopping and can count on one hand the number of times I’ve actually “been shopping” in the last decade.

My teenage self would have been devastated when Athena closed

As a teenager, in the early 70s, I used to take the ferry over to Portsmouth with my friends and we would spend all day shopping in Commercial Road.

C&A, Landports (later changed to Allders), Snob, Etam, Chelsea Girl,
Woolworths, Littlewoods, BHS.

If we went to Southampton we shopped in Tyrrell and Green, Edwin Jones, Miss Selfridges, Owen and Owen plus all the smaller boutiques.

A whole day shopping back then, now I can do it in about an hour.

Sad ...

@Lonelydaisy

Adams kids clothes store

They became Mini Club (the kids' clothes section in Boots), which was administered by Mothercare and is now, I think, wholly a Boots proposition. I used to work for them and I still love their clothes for DD now.

Another vote for the Dutch Pancake House - I have very fond memories of piling out of the Odeon and into DPH, or finding I'd missed a tram and seizing the excuse to go to DPH, or just walking past it and thinking, ooh, I fancy a DPH

I also miss Bay Trading and Internaçionale. Also, when the Trafford Centre very first opened, the end that's now John Lewis was called the Festival Village and it used to have all sorts of amazing little self-contained stands, including one called Dollies Bergere. This stand supplied all of my Ty Beanie Baby needs for quite a while until they started filling it up with actual shops Other much-missed Trafford Centre marvels include Athena and the Discovery Store, and the MASSIVE Topshop they used to have (before it moved further down towards Debenhams), in which I bought a Cookie Monster vest top and an Elmo t-shirt and I looked the absolute bollocks.

I miss the event that was shopping. Going with a friend, looking in different shops, going for coffee. I don't enjoy it online!

Woolworths. I LOVE Wilco and B&M but I live in a stupid expensive trendy place and we can't have useful shops, just Flannels and endless boutiques and coffee shops.

As pp have said - there used to be so much variety. Also quality ☹️

Habitat. Gone cheap and nasty now and available in Argos and Sainsbury's. Really hard to get good mud price modern furniture now (that you can actually see in a shop).

I also second borders books.

Mad House! Endless jeans and Fruit if the Loom hoodies.

What will be the next high Street casualty?
I also vote M&S. Around here they seem to have hung in there in the basis of leave voting elderfolk.

They still exist in some places, but I really miss HMV back in the heyday of the 1990s. When buying a CD was a thing, and you could spend hours browsing the music, videos, posters etc. There was a big HMV in the Trocadero near Piccadilly Circus we always used to go to. I think it’s now a huge tourist tat shop.

@TabithaHazel

Neal Street East in Covent Garden - I used to spend hours in there as a teenager in the 90s. And I miss how Covent Garden was in general back then - lots of independent shops, but now it is mostly shoe shops and chain clothing stores.

Mothercare closing was a real shame, I remember going there as a child with my mum, and I liked the fact that I then went there with my own DC.

I used to work at Neal Street East at weekends and holidays. Something for everyone at different cost points. It was fascinating seeing all these lovely things and I loved the fabrics, incl the cotton tunics and silk kimonos. The customers were great too. 🌹

The Warner Bros store in Manchester Arndale

The Disney Store (90’s ones though)

Heals (Manchester)

Habitat (00’s)

Music Zone
Tammy Girl
Woolworths
Past times
Bay
Index
Metroland (not a store but left a massive unfilled hole in the shopping center)

There are probably loads more.

[quote Badbadbunny]@CeeceeBloomingdale

I think WH Smith and Boots will be fine now travel has opened up again, they make most of their money in airports and train stations.

High St shops and travel hubs are separate divisions of WHS - both divisions are profitable so the airports/train stations aren't subsidising High St stores.

WHS have an ongoing process of closing High St stores when they become unprofitable, as opposed to the likes of Woolworth who kept failing stores open resulting in the whole chain collapsing. WHS also own most of the properties so aren't suffering having to pay stupidly high rents![/quote]
That's interesting about WHSmiths. I have an enduring fondness for them having worked there in the 90s before they turned into dimly lit jumble sales.

La Senza was an underwear shop that sold the only bras that have ever properly fitted me (I have pectus excavatum). They do have an online shop but it’s totally different stuff.
I used to love having a nose around Past Times. There were some lovely little bits in there.

Neal Street East in Covent Garden - loved it here.

Food for Thought - vege restaurant in Covent Garden. Absolutely loved it. Best food ever!

Topshop
Etam & Tammy Girl in the 80s
Miss Selfridge
Borders