House of Fraser to close its Bournemouth store

A new owner of the historic building on Old Christchurch Road is thought to have other plans for the site.

The town’s oldest department store is expected to shut in March. It follows the demise of its big rivals in the town, Beales and Debenhams, and the closure of Marks and Spencer.

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A spokeswoman for Frasers Group said: “It is with regret that we announce the closure of House of Fraser, Bournemouth.

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank our staff for their hard work and dedication. Where possible, we are committed to finding new roles within the group for all staff.”

The closure is a third blow to the town’s retail scene this year following the news that New Look and Wilko would both be closing.

Cllr Phil Broadhead, deputy leader of BCP Council and its member for growth and regeneration, said: “This has been quite the week of changes and activity on our high streets, with a number of major brands making announcements. A common feature of these have been the freeholders of these buildings either accepting new offers from different businesses and retailers or forming new plans.

“Accordingly, we’re seeing the face of our high streets changing quicker than ever before.

“As I understand it, the new owners of the House of Fraser building have worked up new plans which have resulted in House of Fraser not continuing at the site.”

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He cited the replacement of Debenham’s with the new Bobby & Co as evidence that “such changes are not always bad”.

“However, the speed of these changes will invariably have an immediate impact on our town centres. This is why, working with the Business Improvement District, we are working on both short term and longer term plans around the future resilience and reimagining of our town centres,” he said.

“Our High Streets Renaissance Plan will be reporting shortly, looking at the longer term vision, but in the meantime we are undertaking rapid workshops and design briefs on key parts of our town centre – such as the Westover Road and the Avenue Road areas – to ensure we have immediate plans to help this renewal take hold quickly.”

House of Fraser

The chair of Bournemouth Town Centre Business Improvement District (BID), Martin Davies, said: “Firstly our thoughts are with the staff of House of Fraser at what is clearly a difficult time. Many of them have given long and valuable service.

“The closure of House of Fraser is another example of a matter that is fundamentally an ongoing contractual one between the landlords and tenants. There have been other examples in the town centre.”

He said the past couple of weeks had shown the need for BCP Council to set up and lead a retail strategy task force to address pressing issues.

These included the need to work with landlords to explore “more flexible and imaginative working with the retail centre”, improvements to the public realm and “a more sophisticated and flexible approach to parking policy”. The planning system should work with entrepreneurs who wanted to invest in the town.

“Medium and long term strategies for the town centre are necessary but these issues need addressing now and we look to BCP Council who have the influence and resources to pull this together. We stand ready to support,” he said

“Business rates is another huge concern. It is based on an outdated system and needs reforming. Successive governments have kicked this into the long grass for too long. The level of business rates in the town is astronomical, as they are up and down the country and it is not acceptable.

“It is crippling business communities everywhere and giving considerable unfair advantage to online retailers at the expense of valuable town centre businesses.”

Bournemouth’s House of Fraser store began as Bright’s in 1871 and was known as Dingles for much of its life. Its distinctive towers and iron facades helped it become a grade two listed building.

Its closure will follow that of Beales, which was established in the town in 1881 and went into administration in 2020.

Debenhams, which began in the town as Bobby & Co in 1915, disappeared from the high street last year and was replaced by a new business under the Bobby’s name.