The report Departing Stores: Emporia at Risk details the threats to department stores across the UK and what can be done to save these spaces. It covers 46 landmark department stores in town and city centers, some of which have been restored or developed while maintaining their architectural heritage1. Others, however, have been left vacant and are at risk of decay or demolition. In addition, according to the British Retail Consortium and Local Data Company, there were 237 vacant department stores in the UK as of mid-2021. 

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• 1. At least 18 “high street titans” – architecturally significant department stores that have fallen victim to profound changes in shopping patterns – are at risk of being permanently lost, according to a new report. But these “cathedrals of commerce”, as Émile Zola described them in his 1883 novel The Ladies’ Paradise, should be granted new lives – as art galleries, residential housing, community hubs and social spaces, says Save Britain’s Heritage. — Source: The Guardian