Last remaining BHS stores set to close doors after 88 years

Administrators to the chain are set to shut 22 stores on Sunday, bringing an end to 88 years of British retail history.

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, as well as stores in Fareham Shopping Centre, Cascades Shopping centre in Portsmouth and in Chichester.

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.

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

John Hannett, general secretary of the shopworkers’ union Usdaw, said: ‘Wherever the blame lies for the demise of this once great British retailer, it certainly is not with the staff who are paying a high price for corporate decisions that have led us to where we are today.

‘There remains some very serious questions that need to be answered, by former owners of the business, about how a company with decades of history and experience in retail has now come to this very sorry end.’