The face of our high streets has changed a lot through the decades - but many still reminisce about the brands and shops we can no longer visit.
Over the years, many retailers have been hit by the likes of competition from online rivals, higher inflation, supply chain challenges and other high street trading conditions. And more recently, shoppers have said goodbye to staples like Woolworths, Debenhams and BHS.
It was back in 1928 that the first ever British Home Stores shop was opened in Brixton, London, by a group of American entrepreneurs who hoped to emulate the success of Woolworths. In its early days, no items were priced at more than one shilling and the price ceiling was raised to five shillings the following year, the Daily Express previously reported.
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The retail chain went public in 1933 and after the Second World War, the retailer started to focus less on price and more on offering quality and value for money. The business continued to expand in the the decades that followed, opening many stores nationwide and employing thousands of employees.
These photos, unearthed from our archives, Mirrorpix, capture moments at Merseyside branches of BHS in the 1990s. They have been unseen for years and show not only what sites looked like at the time, but a few of the customers who shopped there.
Two images, captured in December 1990, show outside Birkenhead's and Liverpool's BHS. One, taken on December 23 that year, shows Liverpool Christmas shoppers heading in and out of the store, as well as the Christmas trees on display.
Another image, taken in May 1996, shows British Home Stores manager Ken Price. At the time, Liverpool's Cavern Quarter was benefitting from £10m building investment and there were "big plans" for the BHS store.
What are your memories of BHS on Merseyside? Let us know in the comments section below.
By May 2000, a few years after these images were captured, Sir Philip Green bought BHS from Storehouse Plc for £200 million and he turned BHS into a private company. In 2009, BHS was integrated into Green’s Arcadia Group with names such as Topshop, Burton, Evans, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis.
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But in 2016, BHS' 88 years of British retail history came to an end. Loved by many generations in the region, plenty of people were sad when BHS closed its doors for the final time.
At the time, there were around 160 BHS stores nationwide. But a suitable buyer was not found for the department store chain after it went into administration.
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