As part of a review, Historic England may grant protected status to Britain’s disappearing department stores.
The historic organization’s statement coincides with a wave of widespread closures sparked in part by the coronavirus outbreak, the economic crisis, and consumers’ migration to internet shopping.
According to activists, more than 50 per cent of department stores throughout the nation have closed in the last seven years, leaving roughly two million square metres of retail space unoccupied and the original structures under danger of destruction.
Following an upsurge in petitions for some of them to get listed status, a representative for Historic England said that the organisation is now investigating department shops throughout the nation.
Despite being in “early stages,” they said that the evaluation would help them “understand the relevance of surviving instances.”
After a 20-year battle by activists, the Government earlier this month accepted Historic England’s proposal to award Grade II-listed status to the Brutalist former John Lewis and Cole Brothers building in Sheffield.
Norco House in Aberdeen, which was once home to John Lewis, is another Brutalist structure that activists have called attention to as being in danger.
The Twentieth Century Society (C20) also noted that the Marks & Spencer flagship shop on Oxford Street in London and former Debenhams locations in Surrey and Somerset were under danger.
Orchard House, a 1930s Art Deco structure, will be destroyed together with two other structures.
M&S intends to construct a 10-story structure in place of the 91-year-old historic shop.
Michael Gove, who was then the secretary for communities, was spurred by vociferous opposition to initiate an investigation into the store’s future, but M&S reiterated last week that they wanted to go through with the project.
Along with C20, the advocacy organisation SAVE Britain’s Heritage has pushed for the preservation of other iconic structures that have dominated towns and cities for decades.
SAVE applauded Historic England’s study.
A TREASURY OF HISTORY OR A BLOCK IN THE LANDSCAPE? TRAVELLING IN THE CONCRETE JUNGLE OF BRUTALISM
The modernist architectural movement gave rise to the Brutalist architectural movement, which was characterised by the rise of concrete fortress-like structures between the 1950s and the mid-1970s.
Brutalist architecture is revered and reviled in equal measure, with proposals to remove the monolith constructions typically challenged with efforts to conserve them.
London’s Southbank Centre, which contains the Haywood Gallery, and the Grade-II listed Centre Point at the foot of Tottenham Court Road are two examples of the usually linear architecture.
In order to produce practical structures at a cheap cost, the style—which often has a “unfinished concrete” aspect—was first employed for government buildings, low-rent housing, and retail centres. Eventually, however, designers embraced the aesthetic for other applications, such as arts centres and libraries.
Many of the buildings have turned into emblems of urban degradation and are covered with graffiti, which is why critics of the architecture find it unpleasant owing to its “cold” aspect.
Despite this, numerous structures have gained the Listed designation, indicating that others value brutalism.
Although Swedish architect Hans Asplund claimed he introduced the word in a dialogue in 1950, it was generally accepted that English architects Alison and Peter Smithson first used the term in 1953, originating from the French béton brut, or “raw concrete.”
When British architectural critic Reyner Banham titled his book The New Brutalism: Ethic or Aesthetic in 1966, the phrase gained wider traction.
‘These grand and renowned retail palaces that were created to impress and have lasted the test of time through the excellence of the architecture and the immense affection that people feel for them,’ said Henrietta Billings, the organization’s director.
We hope that this assessment will result in more more urgent listings throughout the nation, which would entail protection and national recognition.
As part of a campaign to safeguard threatened department shops that was started in April, C20 undertook its own investigation into defunct department stores.
The old Hammonds building in Hull, which was occupied by House of Fraser until 2019, is one of the structures highlighted on the campaign website.
The building was erected in 1952 after the previous, which was built in 1916, was destroyed by German bombing during World War II.
Described as “strikingly European in design” and “combined classicism and modernity with triple height stone columns on the corner façade and Art Deco wavelets in the glazing,” C20 claims it successfully blends classicism and modernism.
Between 1966 and 1970, the massive old John Lewis building in Aberdeen was constructed, first serving as a departmental headache for the Northern Co-operative company.
It was purchased by John Lewis in the 1980s under the name Norco House, who later renovated and expanded it. The store was shuttered during the shutdown due to the coronavirus and remained closed when the restrictions were lifted.
In July of last year, John Lewis announced the closure’s finalisation. Both in 2007 and 2019/2020, the building was put up for listing consideration; however, both times, it was turned down.
Debenhams stores shuttered for good in May of last year after the company, which would have folded in 2020, was acquired by internet retailer Boohoo.
Numerous former Debenhams locations were identified as “remain at danger” by C20. One was constructed in the 19th century in Taunton, Somerset, and was acquired by Debenhams in 1959.
While the building’s front elevation is in a 1930s design, C20 notes on its website that the Goodland Gardens facades are more characteristic of the 1960s and include considerable glass, coloured panelling, and concrete barriers.
The plan to destroy the shop and build a 92-unit apartment building in its stead was vigorously opposed by the charity.
Additionally, C20 is against plans to destroy an old TJ Hughes location in Eastbourne.
The 1920s-era structure is presently vacant, and plans have been filed to demolish it and develop new businesses and apartments in its stead.
In Staines, Surrey, a different former Debenhams location might also be demolished and converted into apartments. The proposal was rejected by C20. The structure was included in a local list of structures with architectural or historical interest in April.
The Department for Culture, Media, and Sport makes the final decision despite listing recommendations from Historic England (DCMS).
They stated earlier this month that they had recommended that Sheffield’s former John Lewis and Cole Brothers building be given Grant Grade II listed status.
The building is a “rare example of a post-war department store, designed by a leading mid-C20 firm of architects, with clean, crisp Modernist lines and a sophisticated layout for customers,” according to a spokesman.
They continued, “It stood out from the crowd and helped the city of Sheffield realise its vision for a lively new environment for its residents.”
‘We are researching the history of department stores to provide a national overview of the key architectural and historic phases of their development,’ a spokesman for the review into other department stores said today.
This will assist us in determining the relative significance of the remaining examples, which will help us informing our listing assessments and our recommendations to the government.
This is in response to the changes in retailing, which have resulted in store closures and an increase in requests for their listing to be taken into consideration.
“This is preliminary work ahead of the potential commissioning of a larger thematic research report on department stores.” We don’t yet know if it will result in any proposals to list additional examples because it is still in its early stages.
M&S vowed last week to collect, recycle, or reuse 95% of the materials in its current flagship store on Oxford Street in an effort to quell the vehement opposition to plans to tear down the old structure.
Kevin McCloud, host of Grand Designs, and comedian Griff Rhys Jones were two of 27 prominent people to sign an open letter to Communities Secretary Michael Gove in May urging him to look into M&S’s intentions.
According to them, demolishing the structure would release “nearly 40,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.”
Then, in June, when he was still the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities, Mr. Gove initiated a probe into the store’s future.
Sacha Berendji, group director of M&S, reportedly said last week that the new building would use less than a fifth of the energy of the existing structure.
He said that just 30% of the buildings were being destroyed, including Orchard House, the 1929 Portland Stone building at the centre of the company’s renovation plan.
‘Even a significant restoration of the buildings would include additional embodied carbon and leave structural problems unremedied, restricting our possibilities to cut energy use,’ he added.
The letter, which was written by Mr. McCloud and Mr. Rhys Jones, the head of the Victorian Society, said that if designers used “design inventiveness,” the structure might last “for another 100 years or more.”
They favour retrofitting the current structure as opposed to demolishing it and constructing a new one.