AROUND 61 high street shops closed for good on every day of 2019 – capping a decade which has seen a host of famous names 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, Bonmarche, 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 business 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. The future of one of its most prominent local branches, in Portswood Road, Southampton, is still unclear after plans to turn it into student accommodation were refused.

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.

Tie Rack, which had 44 UK stores and 450 across the world, closed in 2013.

Shoe chain Barratts, once a fixture on British high streets, also collapsed into administration in 2013.

Phones4U closed all its stores in 2014. It had branches in Southampton, Eastleigh, Winchester and Fareham.

BHS fell into administration in 2016, becoming retail’s biggest casualty since the demise of Woolworths in 2008. Its stores all closed, including the branch which had been a fixture at Southampton’s Above Bar for more than 75 years.

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 the Southampton branch at Westquay Retail Village earlier this year.

Electronics chain Maplin disappeared after going into administration in 2018. It had branches at Above Bar and Bevois Valley Road, Southampton.

Poundworld, which had stores in Southampton’s Marlands shopping centre and in Gosport, disappeared in August 2018.