please empty your brain below

Your 45% figure and map presumably date from your October 2016 post. I wonder what would it look like from exactly five years ago. It might make a big difference as BHS closed in Summer 2016.
Certainly here in Walthamstow, that’s when we ceased to have a department store.
BHS stores still trading in May 2016: Bexleyheath, Bromley, Croydon, Harrow, Kingston, Lewisham, Oxford Street, Romford, Surrey Quays, Sutton, Uxbridge, Walthamstow, West Ealing, Wood Green.
Calling Elys a department store is a misnomer. Since it sold out over 10 years ago it is now simply a one building shopping mall solely consisting of concessions but without dividing walls between them.

It does not offer a comprehensive range of household goods and reminds me of Woolworths in its last years of decline when it mainly stocked gardening, records, sweets and toys amongst other things, a pretty eclectic mix. House of Fraser is similar in that it is concession based, I'm not sure if this is 100% though.
Use or lose indeed, as with everything. Where I live there is a department store which, whilst claiming that it's never knowingly undersold, is most definitely generally overpriced! I use it reluctantly, probably no more frequently than once annually.
John Lewis in Westfield White City is open and remaining so. This would alter your paragraph 'Outside Central London...' as well as the map.
I even went there on its opening morning :)
Added, thanks.
Good article! Battersea M&S is unfortunately now department store free now - it was redeveloped into a (much nicer) food only store early in 2020.

dg writes: updated, thanks.
My mum and her friends were so sad about the demise of 'Bodgers'. It was their main reason to travel to Ilford. 'Pearsons' (Enfield) was even more delightfully eclectic in the 80s / 90s, before they let in franchises of other chains (Wallis etc). Debenhams in the past 10 years or so looked a bit desperate, always having a sale. Shoppers can sense desperation and tend to steer clear. For a store to stay buoyant it needs to believe in itself, as that belief translates to the customer.
A really valuable survey, thanks. It’s fair to count larger M&S as department stores, but Battersea is one location which shouldn’t be on your list. It’s just a food store, albeit with a smarter new format.
Regardless of competing with online, I find most department stores too expensive and could generally find cheaper elsewhere on the High Street at one time. Much harder now.

I was tempted by a pair of shorts I saw in M&S this week (ever hopeful!) but audibly gasped at the £27.50 price tag! I wouldn't even pay that for something that still had both legs there!
There is another Roomes store in Upminster, Roomes Fashion & Home, the one you have listed is Furniture shop.
It was a sad day when Tudor Williams closed in New Malden
Fascinating a saddening - especially to see the fate of Croydon, which in my day was still the place to go, exemplifying more than anywhere else the "white heat of technology".
Kingston may still have Marks & Spencers, but until recently it had two - one either side of Clarence Street. The one on the north side (on a site previously occupied by Littlewoods) closed within the past two years.
You can of course buy clothes cheaper than at M&S or other department stores - provided you are happy to ignore that they are often made by exploited workers and child labour.
As I understand it the Battersea / Clapham Jct M&S is a pilot for what may happen to other bigger stores. It's suprisingly different. You can even use your loyalty card to get free samples of wine from a chiller cabinet - well you could soon after it re-opened as a food only store. I was impressed & not just because of the free booze!
I've got such fond memories of Department Stores. As a child my Grandmother used to take me to Arding & Hobbs and my first job was in Selfridges in the mid-seventies. So sad to see the general demise of the Department Store but can't see the downward spiral halting.

I believe Sir John Betjeman once said the atmosphere in Peter Jones haberdashery department was so good that if the end of the world came he'd like to be there.
Roomes Furniture Store in Upminster is completely independent from the Morley's owned Fashion & Home store on the opposite side of Station Road.
Like Cornish Monkey my wife was mortified when Tudor Williams closed in New Malden. Not necessarily for the clothes etc. It was a place to go for a cup of tea and the loo ;-)
I popped into Tudor Williams about ten years ago, killing time before a hockey match. They had an eyecatching display of women's swimming caps that you wouldn't see elsewhere.
Roomes furniture in Upminster is owned by the Roomes family, who sold the remainder (and the name) to the new owners you mention. And the 1930s half of the store (with a road between the two) was turned into flats with an M&S food store in the ground floor, some years ago. I used to beg and beg for a ride in the lift in there, which was much more likely than a ride on the tube to that (distant) London!
Meanwhile, in Peterborough, Beales has reopened!
I read on Twitter that the Hackney M&S is closed for refurb and will be food only once it reopens. Which makes sense as it was a very small, oddly shaped shop. The bras were practically in the bakery.

dg writes: updated, thanks.
It's all our fault!
Cost is king and whilst we kid ourselves that we do our bit by popping in to Peter Jones now and then dahling, the conglomerates know how much they can get away with as long as they're the cheapest. For the moment, that is.
It's classic capitalism: choke the opposition to death then coin it in with the resulting monopoly.
These "free" home deliveries and "convenient" lockers at train stations for when we're not home are nothing as to the ability to try before you buy in a shop. What's a department store other than the internet shopping sites in 3D?
It's a bit of a stretch to call the M&S in Brixton a department store, it's a cramped supermarket with a few rows of clothes you have to walk through to get to; all under cramped railway arches with no natural light.
House of Fraser on Oxford Street is to close in January 2022.










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