Opinion: The Death of Department Stores

Published on: 17 Oct, 2023
Updated on: 20 Oct, 2023

Joseph Bickle is a young adult born and raised in Guildford, currently studying media and communications at Cardiff University.

This summer he began writing occasional stories for The Guildford Dragon NEWS. Here, in an opinion piece, he looks at the death of department stores.

The department store. A once thriving and well-integrated part of many towns and communities, such was the case for Guildford certainly in the 20th century.

The town once had a number of popular department stores where people could shop for a vast array of products or enjoy a bite to eat in their cafés. 

In 2023 these department stores are shells of their past selves.

Plummers was the original name for the department store next to the river in Guildford, later renamed Debenhams. This picture postcard view dates from about the late 1960s. David Rose collection.

With the Debenhams megastore shutting for good in 2021 and House of Fraser closing its doors on September 30, 2023, this marks the figurative end for department stores in Guildford and their consistent popularity among many generations. But this being crucially, besides today’s youth.

Department stores were once an important aspect of Guildford’s shopping experience.

The Guildford Co-operative Society’s store in North Street on the corner with Leapale Road. David Rose collection.

The Guildford Co-operative Society had a large presence in North Street and on down Haydon Place. It also had smaller branches in places such as Stoughton, Woodbridge Hill, Guildford Park and Bellfields, and also in nearby villages and towns.

Gammons store in North Street on the corner with Market Street. David Rose collection.

Other flagship department stores included Gammons in North Street and Harvey’s of Guildford.

Originally William Harvey opened his House of Harvey ladies fashion store in the new Tunsgate Arcade in 1919, with it moving to the High Street in the late 1940s to become a department store.

Taken over by the House of Fraser group in 1974, it was branded as an Army & Navy store, later being named House of Fraser.

In a postwar Guildford, Harvey’s represented a move into modernity.

Harvey’s of Guildford even had an arcade within its department store. David Rose collection.

In many ways it was a store made up of many department stores, with sections for men and women’s fashion, china and cutlery, haberdashery, furniture and so on.

Picture postcard view of Harvey’s rooftop café and fish ponds, dating to the early 1960s. David Rose collection.

On top of this, the store was famous for its roof-top café which was very popular among children and adults alike for its views, food, and the pools which contained exotic fish.

For me, it is hard to picture these stores that have have fallen into obsolescence. Like many things that were popular and enjoyable for older generations, they have fallen from grace due to the internet

According to a BBC study in 2021, 83% of big department stores in the UK have closed their doors since 2016.

It is obvious the Covid pandemic had drastic effects on department stores, but their decline was a foretold conclusion as shopping online became the more attractive option for the wider society.

Essentially, the internet has made department stores obsolete because they beat them at their main attraction – the sheer amount of selection.

Online shopping provides consumers with nearly infinite amounts of selection, all from the comfort of your home, and potentially cheaper too.

The department store café, which was once seen as the ‘posh’ place in town to have tea, is now, as I observe, seen as essentially a pensioner daycare.

The last day of House of Fraser in Guildford. Photo: David Rose.

The days of department stores are over because, if customers want a broad selection, they will shop online.

But if they do want to see the products in person, they will still visit shopping centres and high street stores as they do offer a range of brands all within a small area.

While people may complain the days of department stores are over, my observation is that these complaints come from a rose-tinted nostalgia for a time which was good for reasons other than the multi-story shopping warehouses with cafés.

Many thanks to my grandma Sheila Atkinson whose memoirs helped me understand why department stores were so important and loved in Guildford in days gone by.

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