Department stores could be given protected status

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Department stores in England could be given protected status after the body that looks after historic buildings launched a review of high streets across the country.

marks spencer marble arch

Marks & Spencer’s plans to redevelop its Marble Arch store have come under the spotlight

Historic England said it was “researching the history of department stores to provide a national overview of the key architectural and historic phases of their development”.

The organisation said the review, first reported by The Guardian, was “in response to the changes in retailing which have seen stores close and an increase in requests for them to be considered for listing”.

Dozens of department stores across the country have closed during the past decade. The likes of BHS and Debenhams have slumped into administration, leaving large voids in high streets across the UK.

Many of those stores remain vacant, with some at risk of demolition or facing calls for revamps in line with climate targets.

Marks & Spencer’s plans to redevelop its Marble Arch store, for example, have come under the spotlight this year.

Property developers and MPs have joined calls to retrofit the building for sustainability purposes, but in June, the then-communities secretary Michael Gove hit the pause button on the plans. Gove called for a public inquiry into M&S’s plan to demolish the 1920s structure for an office-retail block.

Now organisations such as Twentieth Century Society (C20) and Save Britain’s Heritage have joined the broader campaign to save such buildings – and called for the spaces to be reinvented rather than demolished and rebuilt.

Save Britain’s Heritage director Henrietta Billings said: “These majestic and prestigious retail palaces that were built to impress and have stood the test of time through the quality of the architecture and the great fondness that people hold for them.

“We hope this review will lead to more and urgent listings – meaning protection and national recognition – across the country.”

Data from C20 suggested that more than half of all department stores across England have closed during the past seven years, leaving around 21 million sq ft of vacant retail space.

The organisation has flagged the former Debenhams stores in Somerset and Surrey, and Aberdeen’s Norco House – bought by John Lewis in the 1980s – among the buildings it believes are of architectural and historic interest.

Its previous efforts to save a former John Lewis building in Sheffield were rewarded earlier this month when the property was given a Grade-II listing by Historic England.