BHS exits British high street after 88 years

Once a staple of the British high street, BHS closed its doors for good yesterday, ending 88 years of British retail history.

The last bargain hunters could be seen emerging from the retailer’s Walthamstow branch in north London clutching heavily discounted items as administrators shut 22 stores across the UK, the last of more than 150 branches.

The department's only overseas store was on O'Connell Street in Dublin, a space now occupied by Penneys. However, the shop fell victim to recession and was closed in the 1980s.

Heatons later took up the Irish franchise, opening three outlets in Kilkenny, Letterkenny and Dublin's Jervis Centre under the British chain's name. But in 1998 all three were changed to Heatons shops.

In the UK, Duff & Phelps and FRP Advisory have already overseen 141 closures over recent weeks, including BHS’s flagship Oxford Street store in London’s West End.

Parliamentary inquiry

The department store’s collapse in April has affected 11,000 jobs, 22,000 pensions, sparked a lengthy parliamentary inquiry and left its high-profile former owners potentially facing a criminal investigation.

Retail billionaire Sir Philip Green has borne the brunt of the public fallout, having been branded the "unacceptable face of capitalism" by furious MPs.

Green owned BHS for 15 years before selling it to serial bankrupt Dominic Chappell for £1 in 2015.

Green has come under fire for taking more than £400 million in dividends from the chain, leaving it with a £571 million pension deficit and for selling it to a man with no retail experience.

Veteran Labour MP Frank Field has asked the serious-fraud office to launch a formal investigation into the pair to ascertain if any criminal wrongdoing occurred during the sale of the chain and throughout their respective ownerships.

It has also emerged that Mr Field is investigating Green's Arcadia retail empire, which includes Topshop.

Discounted goods

In Walthamstow, shoppers rummaged through boxes of heavily discounted goods, with discarded items strewn across the floor.

Paul Campbell, who lives locally, left the store shortly after 4pm with a trolley full of DVDs. He said: "I've paid a pound for this lot. I reckon it's about 200 or so DVDs, if they are all there in the right cases.

"There are some Rugby World Cup box sets, golf DVDs which I'll give to my mate, the rest I will sell or give to the local charity shops. "At the end of the day, I've paid a pound for all this. It's not really much of a risk."

Veedoo Clash, from Tottenham, said she was sad to see BHS leave the high street, having shopped at the branch for 28 years. She said: “I just grabbed whatever I could.

"I went to Oxford Street when it closed, I bought lots of things for my husband and the grandchild, but I hid them because I didn't want my husband to see. Then I came here to Walthamstow." – (Additional reporting by PA)