‘Big mausoleums of stuff’: Cheltenham is latest town to mourn loss of beloved department store

In an age when we love bagging bargains online, locals and experts in one of the UK’s most affluent towns debate whether there’s any future in high-street retailing

If you wanted to look at the struggles of the British high street, Cheltenham would not necessarily be the first place to start. There are no boarded-up shop windows or empty windswept streets, no surplus of betting offices and charity shops. Nor do outlets with the word “pound” in their titles loom conspicuously large.

On the contrary, the handsome town centre streets are bustling, business seems to be, if not booming, then not exactly in existential crisis. So it is not hard to believe, on a bright Wednesday afternoon, that all is right in the world – or at least in this affluent corner of Gloucestershire.