40 Fun Facts About British High Street Shops

Which American video rental chain opened its first British store in 1989 and shut the last of them in December 2013?

Blockbuster ran more than 800 British stores at its 2002 peak, yet went into administration twice in 2013 when no buyer could be found.

Toys R Us, which closed every one of its British stores in 2018, had a mascot named Geoffrey who was which animal?

A giraffe first appeared in 1950s adverts for the founder's earlier toy shop, and he grew into Geoffrey as the chain took its famous name.

Which retail tycoon sold the department store chain BHS for just £1 in 2015, a year before it collapsed?

Philip Green had bought BHS for £200 million in 2000, and after its collapse he agreed to pay £363 million into the pension scheme of its staff.

Which Dutch-founded clothing chain, in Britain since 1922, announced in 2000 that all its UK stores would close?

C&A takes its name from the initials of founding brothers Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer, and it carried on trading across mainland Europe.

Which jewellery chain nearly collapsed after its boss joked in a 1991 speech that its cheap products were rubbish?

Ratners lost its chief Gerald Ratner within two years, and "doing a Ratner" became business shorthand for ruining a company with a careless remark.

Woolworths, which shut all 807 British shops in the winter of 2008–09, opened its first one in 1909 in which city?

Liverpool was where founder Frank Woolworth had first landed on a buying trip in 1890, and his Church Street store opened there 19 years later.

Which online fashion retailer bought the Debenhams name in 2021, leaving the chain founded in 1778 without any shops?

Boohoo paid £55 million for the brand and website but took none of the remaining 118 stores, at a cost of up to 12,000 jobs.

Which travel firm, begun in 1841 to carry temperance supporters by train, collapsed in September 2019?

Thomas Cook's failure left 150,000 British holidaymakers abroad and triggered the country's largest peacetime repatriation, codenamed Operation Matterhorn.

Which English composer took part in the opening of the first HMV shop on London's Oxford Street in 1921?

Edward Elgar helped launch the shop at 363 Oxford Street for the Gramophone Company, whose His Master's Voice trademark gave the chain its initials.

Britain's Virgin Megastores were renamed in 2007 under which name, only for the new chain to collapse 15 months later?

Zavvi lost its supply of stock when the wholesale arm of Woolworths failed, and it went into administration on Christmas Eve 2008.

Marks & Spencer sold nearly all its goods under which brand name, honouring a co-founder, until it was dropped in 2000?

St Michael was introduced in 1928 by Simon Marks in honour of his father, and it spread from clothing to food in 1941.

Marks & Spencer began in 1884 as a penny bazaar stall in the market of which Yorkshire city?

Leeds and its Kirkgate Market hosted the first stall, which was set up with a £5 loan from a local wholesaler.

Which furniture chain, founded in 1964 by two dealers in war surplus goods, closed all 111 of its stores in late 2008?

MFI stood for Mullard Furniture Industries, and its managers bought the chain in September 2008, two months before recession pushed it into administration.

Which homeware chain, begun in Leicester in 1930 as a hardware shop, saw all its original stores close in late 2023?

Wilko was the name the family firm Wilkinson adopted from 2012, and after the collapse a rival bought the brand and began opening new shops under it.

Which baby goods chain, founded in 1961 by Selim Zilkha, announced in 2019 that all of its British shops would close?

Mothercare had already sold its Early Learning Centre toy shops that year, and its name later returned to Britain on goods stocked by Boots.

Which fashion chain, with a flagship at London's Oxford Circus, was sold to ASOS in 2021 after Arcadia collapsed?

Topshop drew about 28,000 shoppers a day to its five-floor flagship, but the buyer wanted only the brand and kept none of the shops.

Which electrical chain, founded in Hull in 1933 to charge radio batteries, closed its last stores in December 2012?

Comet began with founder George Hollingbery charging wireless batteries in a workshop and delivering them for a small weekly fee, and it ended with more than 6,000 jobs lost.

Which poster and print chain sold more than two million copies of its Tennis Girl image before going bust in 1995?

Athena began in 1964 as a single Hampstead shop selling fine art prints, and it also published the famous picture of a muscular man cradling a baby.

The menswear chain Hepworths bought the Kendalls shops in 1981 and relaunched them a year later as which fashion chain?

Next so outgrew its parent that by 1986 the whole Hepworths company, a tailoring firm dating from 1864, had taken the new chain's name.

Which store chain, begun by Sir John Moores as a football pools business, sold off all its high street shops in 2005?

Littlewoods grew from the pools into mail order and then shops, and about 40 of its stores became branches of Primark when the chain closed.

Which designer opened the first Habitat furniture shop on London's Fulham Road in 1964?

Terence Conran opened the shop to market his own Summa furniture range, and all but three Habitat stores closed when the chain failed in 2011.

The 1960s boutique chain Chelsea Girl, a driver of the mini dress trend, was rebranded in 1988 under which name?

River Island was first tried on a single menswear shop in Exeter, and it did so well that the whole Chelsea Girl chain took the name within months.

Jenners, a grand department store founded in 1838 and closed in 2020, was a landmark of which Scottish city?

Edinburgh shoppers knew Jenners on Princes Street, a site it never left even after fire destroyed the original building in 1892.

Which record shop chain, begun on London's Finchley Road in 1971, opened 300 stores before its closure in 2004?

Our Price trailed only Woolworths in record and tape sales in the early 1980s, and in 1984 it became the first specialist music shop to float on the London Stock Exchange.

Which electrical chain sponsored English football's League Cup from 1990 to 1992, three years before all its shops shut?

Rumbelows began with one Hertfordshire shop opened by Sydney Rumbelow in 1949, and it was losing money by the time its owner Thorn closed the lot.

Which accessories chain, a fixture of airports and railway stations, began closing its last 44 shops in 2013?

Tie Rack began when founder Roy Bishko tried selling ties from his heel bar on Oxford Street, and the bar was converted into the first shop.

Which mobile retailer, built up by tycoon John Caudwell, went under in 2014 when the networks ended their contracts?

Phones 4u had no network of its own, so once O2, then EE and Vodafone stopped supplying it, there was nothing left to sell.

Which retailer, built up by former footballer Dave Whelan from a single shop in Wigan, called in administrators in 2012?

JJB Sports took its initials from John Jarvis Broughton, who opened the original shop in the early 1900s, and two later owners kept the name.

Which menswear chain, a supplier of demob suits after the Second World War, lost its last shops in 2021?

Burton was founded by Montague Burton, and his complete demob outfit, from jacket to underwear, is one suggested origin of the phrase "the full monty".

Which chocolate maker, founded in Sheffield in 1911 and bought by Ferrero in 2015, shut all of its own shops in 2021?

Thorntons was an established toffee and fudge maker before chocolate took over, and it announced in March 2021 that its last 61 shops would close for good.

Which electrical chain, begun as a Southend photo studio in 1937, took its name at random from a telephone directory?

Dixons was chosen because it was short enough to fit above the small shopfront, and the founder's son Stanley Kalms began selling by post in 1948.

Woolworths sold own-brand goods from 1963 under which name, the middle name of company founder Frank Woolworth?

Winfield lasted as the chain's own label until the 1980s, whereas the children's clothing name Ladybird was bought in from another firm in 1984.

Which Dragons' Den investor rescued the camera chain Jessops after it went into administration in January 2013?

Peter Jones bought the brand and assets within weeks, saving a business that Frank Jessop had started as one Leicester shop in 1935.

Which bookshop chain, named after a Tintin adventure, was merged into Waterstone's after a 2006 takeover?

Ottakar's took its name from King Ottokar's Sceptre, and some branches had Tintin scenes painted on the walls or a rocket for children to play in.

Which shoe shop chain, begun on a market barrow in Woolwich in 1863, fell into administration in January 2008?

Dolcis only appeared over the shop doors in 1920, because founder John Upson had called his first store the Great Boot Provider.

Which chemist and housewares chain, begun in Portsmouth in 1848, was taken over by Boots in 1968 and vanished by 1985?

Timothy Whites lost its pharmacies to its new owner, which left it with just 196 shops selling only housewares, a move that did not succeed.

Which frozen food chain, Britain's biggest in the 1980s, was bought by smaller rival Iceland in a 1989 hostile takeover?

Bejam was an acronym of the names of founder John Apthorp's family: Brian, Eric, John, Milly and Marion.

Which off-licence chain merged with Victoria Wine in 1998 to form First Quench, which collapsed in 2009?

Threshers and Victoria Wine had almost 3,000 off-licences between them at the merger, yet every shop closed after the group went into administration in October 2009.

Which supermarket bought the Paperchase name in 2023 but none of the 106 shops of the collapsed stationery chain?

Tesco bought the name the day after the chain went into administration, ending a business started around 1968 by two art students.

WHSmith sold its 480 high street shops in 2025 to an investment firm that rebranded them under which name?

TGJones replaced the familiar name because the seller kept that for its travel shops in stations and airports, which earned 85% of its profits.