Another one bites the dust.

Debenhams has become the latest in a string of major retailers to shut its Oxford Street store after revealing its flagship location would not be reopening, even after current trading restrictions on ‘non-essential’ retailers ease.

The London location is just one of the six shops the beleaguered department store chain is shutting in its latest tranche of closures, but it was certainly the headline-grabber.

Debenhams’ Oxford Street departure – one that has looked inevitable since administrator FRP Advisory kicked off a winding up and stock liquidation process at the end of last year – leaves another gaping hole in the once vibrant retail thoroughfare.

Long before the coronavirus crisis struck, the cracks were showing. BHS shut up shop back in August 2016, leaving a void that has struggled to attract an exciting long-term occupant.

Polish fashion retailer Reserved took a chunk of the vacant ground-floor space, but it has hardly set the UK market alight since model Kate Moss opened the store to great fanfare in 2017.

Market Halls launched the UK’s largest food hall a year later, with 25 restaurants, 10 food stalls and four bars sprawling across 36,000 sq ft. But the company has made swathes of redundancies during the pandemic and now faces an uncertain future.

If only the old BHS was Oxford Street’s only headache.

“There was a time when such properties would be snapped up before they’d even been formally brought to market. Who knows how long it will take for new occupiers and buyers to be found for those prime units?”

HMV and Forever 21 left central London behind months ago, but their units remain empty. 214 Oxford Street, the building that houses Topshop’s flagship store – as well as Nike and Vans – is up for sale.

Gap is shutting one of its two stores on the street. John Lewis has been given the green light to convert almost half its retail space into offices. The list goes on.

There was a time when such properties would be snapped up before they’d even been formally brought to market. Who knows how long it will take for new occupiers and buyers to be found for those prime units?

For now, sweet shops and stores selling cheap Union Jack tat to tourists – who are nowhere to be seen during the Covid crisis – are in danger of taking over the once highly sought-after street.

If the West End isn’t careful, the cracks that have widened dramatically during the pandemic will quickly become an unsurmountable canyon. A joined-up rescue plan is needed – and it’s needed urgently. 

Despite the red flags, empty units and abundance of London fridge magnets in shop windows, there is, of course, some cause for optimism. Frasers Group invested tens of millions in its Flannels flagship and head office space in September 2019.

Adidas opened the doors to its impressive tech and experience-driven store the following month.

And Microsoft, which took a prime spot on Oxford Circus earlier that same year, offered a welcome vote of confidence to the West End last summer – the store is one of just four that it will continue to trade from worldwide, with the remainder to be closed permanently.

That, however, won’t be enough to restore Oxford Street to former glories. Visions of a pedestrianised future have long been mooted and often knocked back. But that sort of radical reinvention is required. In the wake of the Covid crisis, it might be a case of now or never if that is going to happen.

The West End need only look to our friends in France for ideas about what can be achieved when town planners, local authorities, community leaders and businesses come together to create a united vision.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo last week rubber-stamped a radical €250m (£225m) revamp of the Champs-Élysées. At present known for being home to premium shops, expensive cafes and luxury car showrooms, the famous 1.2-mile stretch of the French capital will be transformed into “an extraordinary garden”.

“Once-popular high streets up and down the country will be able to relate to the conundrum being faced by the Champs-Élysées – and their problems are only likely to mount”

Roads will be turned into pathways and green areas, slashing the space allowed for vehicles in half. Tunnels of trees will be planted to improve air quality – something many major cities across the world got a taste of during the pandemic, as lockdown restrictions meant fewer cars on roads.

Champs-Elysees plan

An image from the architectural firm PCA-Stream showing the planned changes to the Champs-Élysées area

As the president of the Champs-Élysées committee, Jean-Noël Reinhardt, put it in 2019: “The Champs-Élysées has more and more visitors and big-name businesses battle to be on it, but to French people it’s looking worn out.”

Sound familiar? It should – and not just to those on Oxford Street.

Once-popular high streets up and down the country will be able to relate to the conundrum being faced by the Champs-Élysées – and their problems are only likely to mount.

A report published by KPMG this week offers the stark warning that up to 40% of high street stores could be forced to close as the pandemic sparks radical shifts to online shopping and remote working.

Despite that, high streets – including prime locations such as Oxford Street – still, undoubtedly, have a future. But that future looks radically different now to what it did even a year ago.

We’ve seen during the breaks between our three national lockdowns that consumers are eager to return to retail and hospitality destinations. But those two sectors will not be able to sustain our high streets on their own in the longer term.

They need help from leisure, community facilities and green areas to create genuinely appealing locations that consumers will return to again and again, rather than go back to their tablets to buy clothes or order takeaways.

Planners, local authorities and business leaders must work together to face into that future in the same way that Paris has if high streets are to rediscover a certain je ne sais quoi.