AROUND 61 high street shops closed for good on every day of 2019 – capping a decade which saw a host of famous retailers disappear.

According to the Centre for Retail Research, there have been 16,073 store closures this year, of which 5,901 were large retail chains.

The figure was up by 79 per cent on 2018 for the large chains.

The independent retail sector saw 10,172 stores close, which was down by almost 10 per cent on the previous year.

Major chains including Debenhams, House of Fraser, Bon Marche, Mothercare, Clintons, Select Fashion, Karen Millen and coast, Jack Wills and Bathstore all went into administration in 2019, leading to branch closures.

Mothercare’s stores are all shutting, although the name is expected to continue as a franchise. All Karen Millen and Coast stores also closed, although the names are continuing online after being bought by Boohoo.

Professor Joshua Bamfield, director at the Centre for Retail Research, expects store closures to rise by another nine per cent in 2020.

He said: “The commercial pressures of higher labour costs, business rates and relatively weak demand will continue to undercut profits and force the weakest companies to close stores or enter administration.

“The high street and suburbs will continue to decline.”

The closures cap a grim decade for bricks and mortar retailers.

  • DVD rental chain Blockbuster finally collapsed in 2013 , after going into administration in 2010. It had branches in Bournemouth, Oakdale, Wimborne, Christchurch, Hamworthy, Parkstone, Westbourne and Ringwood.
  • Past Times, which had a store in Southampton’s Above Bar, fell into administration in 2012 with the loss of all its branches, although the brand name was bought by WH Smith. It had stores in Poole and Bournemouth town centres.
  • Tie Rack, which had 44 UK stores including Bournemouth’s Commercial Road, closed in 2013.
  • Shoe chain Barratts, once a fixture on the high street, also collapsed into administration in 2013.
  • Phones4U closed all its stores in 2014 . It had branches in Bournemouth and Poole.
  • BHS fell into administration in 2016 , becoming retail’s biggest casualty since the demise of Woolworths in 2008. It had shops in Poole’s Dolphin Centre and Bournemouth’s Mallard Road Retail Park.
  • Staples disappeared as a physical store in 2016 . The name continued online but the shops became branches of Office Outlet, which went into administration and closed its branches at Poole’s Fleet Lane and Bournemouth’s Holdenhurst Road earlier this year.
  • Electronics chain Maplin disappeared after going into administration in 2018. It had branches at Commercial Road in Bournemouth, Wessex Gate in Poole and Christchurch Retail Park.