Debenhams Sheffield: What has happened to old stores in other cities, as buildings in Sheffield remain empty?

But while the old branches of the once-mighty retailer at the top of The Moor in Sheffield city centre and at Meadowhall are left languishing as all too visible symbols of the high street’s ongoing struggles, new uses have been found for former Debenhams shops in other cities.

Go-karting, bowling alleys, bars and restaurants, as well as new shops, homes and hotels are among the facilities which have opened – or are planned – in the cavernous spaces left by Debenham’s demise in cities including London, Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool.

In Sheffield, there have been various proposals for the old five-storey Debenhams store at the top of The Moor, including demolishing it and replacing it with two towers of up to 34 storeys, which could contain shops, leisure facilities, flats, offices and a hotel. Other suggestions have included transforming it into a hospital, while the latest in October from the consultancy firm handling the sale for MHA was that a business wanted to run it as a department store again, but no concrete plans have yet emerged.

At Meadowhall, the old Debenhams also remains empty, with no announcements yet about any new occupiers, despite centre director Darren Pearce saying in February that he was ‘90 per cent’ confident of signing firms to take over his two biggest empty units, and in August a spokeswoman for the shopping centre saying that talks with a potential occupier for the former Debenhams were ‘progressing well’.

Down in Wandsworth, London, the old Debenhams has been taken over by Gravity Active Entertainment and houses activities including e-karting, bowling and golf, along with bars, restaurants and live music. In Liverpool, similar plans were earlier this year approved for the upper floors of the former Debenhams at Liverpool ONE to be converted into a leisure facility that could include go-karting, with the lower two floors to be kept for use as retail space.

In Manchester, plans were announced in November this year to extend the former Debenhams store and create a 10-floor building housing a shopping arcade, restaurants and offices, with developers hoping to begin work in 2023 and complete the transformation by 2025. And in Leeds, approval was granted in 2021 to convert the former Debenhams on Briggate into 124 studio apartments along with 45,000 sq ft of retail space, with the work scheduled for completion in the second half of 2023.

Elsewhere, Gloucestershire University has bought the former Debenhams in Gloucester and plans to turn it into a new £60 million campus; a former Debenhams store in Southampton is set to be demolished to make space for 600 homes; in Carmarthen, Wales, the old Debenhams is on course to be turned into a community centre offering healthcare and cultural services among other things; in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, the former Debenhams is now an art gallery; and in Edinburgh, the old Debenhams is set to be transformed into a new luxury hotel complete with a rooftop bar.