Some of the biggest names on the British high street have vanished over the past 40 years. Now. BHS is one of the latest to have joined the growing list of those memorable shops that have disappeared from our high streets, with 164 BHS outlets closed down around the UK after the business went into administration in April 2016.

Acorn Stairlifts take a look at 10 once-familiar high street names that have closed over the years.

Woolworths

This once familiar store had everything you needed from clothes to pick ‘n’ mix. The first Woolworths store opened in the UK in 1909 and quickly branched out across the nation. The American-owned chain became a firm favourite, called by many “Woollies”. The “credit crunch” heavily impacted to a point in that it struggled to survive through the downturn. Between December 2008 and January 2009, all 807 stores were closed down. The Woolworths brand briefly survived while its Ladybird children’s clothing division was bought by the Littlewoods online business.

C&A

The Dutch firm, C&A, which was known for its quality clothes at reasonable prices, announced its withdrawal from the British Market in 2000, and closed 109 stores. Retail Analysts had reported that it had failed to keep up with changing fashions and had recorded several losses in the 1990s. Mid-market retailers such as Next and Gap had increased the competition the company faced and hastened its demise.

Radio Rentals

This shop established in Brighton during the 1930s, rocketed up the market with the demand for radios. They rented them out rather than selling, along with TVs, video recorders and other electronic goods with prohibitively high purchase prices. As the competition grew in the consumer electronics market, prices began to tumble and more people were choosing to buy their electronics outright. BoxClever eventually bought out radio Rentals, however the brand still lives on in Australia.

Comet

This business was also established during the 1930s but didn’t open its first electrical good store until 1968. Comet expanded rapidly across Britain with high street stores throughout different cities. In 2012 it unfortunately ran up losses of £95m. A capital investment firm famously bought it out for £2, but failed to turn the business around and all 236 stores were closed by Christmas of that year.

Fine Fare

Once one of Britain’s home grown supermarket brands, this store was established in the 1950s and grew rapidly through the 60s and 70s. But by the 80s, Fine Fare was struggling with competition from the other rapidly growing chains such as Sainsbury’s and Tesco, which were both opening larger out-of-town outlets. In the end, Fine Fare was sold to the owner of Gateway in the late 80s and its stores were closed or rebranded.

WH Smith Do It All

In 1979, stationery provider WH Smith decided to expand into the DIY business. But, from the start they struggled to compete. They merged with Boots-owned Payless DIY in the 90s. WH Smith eventually sold its half to Boots for a £1 voucher, with Boots later selling the stores to Focus DIY, which itself ended up going into liquidation in 2011.

Midland Bank

Although, this isn’t a store, Midland Bank was still a fixture on our high streets. It was one of the UK’s big four banks in the 70s, along with Lloyds, NatWest and Barclays. It was originally established as the Birmingham and Midland Bank in 1936. It pioneered many changes in the banking industry, but was taken over in 1992 by HSBC. All its branches were rebranded as HSBC from 1999, but smaller branches have since closed as online banking became more widely used.

Freeman, Hardy and Willis

This business became one of the first national shoe shop chains, and originally opened in Leicester in the 70s. Because of its size, the business was able to produce shoes in large quantities and offer them cheaply to customers at a time when the only other option was expensive custom-made shoes. However, they were unable to compete with bigger cut-price chains selling cheap foreign-made shoes. Freeman, Hardy and Willis became part of the British Shoe Corporation and stopped trading in the mid-90s.

Dewhurst the Master Butcher

The business was founded in Merseyside in the late 1800s, and had over 1,400 outlets by 1997, but went into administration not long after. Increasing competition from supermarkets selling pre-packaged meat at cheaper prices hit Dewhurst hard. Health concerns were raised in the 2000s, which also saw a move away from red meat. The company was simply too big to sustain and went into administration in 2006.

Safeway

This was once one of the UK’s fourth largest supermarkets in 2002. Problems occurred because the company was unable to compete with the other three, Morrisons, Asda and Tesco, which were growing much more quickly, impacting its profits. Safeway had floundered by 2004, leading to its acquisitions by Bradford-based Morrisons. Some stores that were sold off to other retailers in areas, that already had a Morrisons but the majority of their stores became Morrisons. By November 2005 the Safeway brand had completely disappeared.