Bleak news for Burton and Topshop carries particular poignancy: The Yorkshire Post says

While famous companies disappearing from our streets has become sadly all-too-common in recent months and years, the major question marks over the future of the businesses contained within the threatened Arcadia Group retail empire carries particular poignancy in this part of the world.

Burton was founded in the early 20th Century and famously had a huge factory in Leeds turning out tens of thousands of suits per week, while Topshop has its origins in Sheffield in the swinging 60s.

With the century-old Dorothy Perkins brand also in the Arcadia group, important parts of British fashion history and heritage face a deeply-uncertain future.

Around 15,000 jobs are said to be at risk in the latest piece of grim news for the High Street, with rivals including Debenhams, Edinburgh Woollen Mill Group and Oasis Warehouse all sliding into insolvency since the pandemic struck in March.

The Government is now suggesting that shops will be allowed to trade around the clock if they wish during December and January to recoup some of their losses this year.

Given that the UK lost a record 6,000 shops in the first half of the year, the measure will come too late for some of the nation’s previously most-loved stores but offers at least some opportunity for shoppers to support businesses that they have held dear to their hearts down the years.

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