Joplings in Sunderland first opened in 1804 on High Street East as a drapery business, trading as Jopling & Tuer. As the store flourished over the years, it moved to a new base in High Street West in 1919 and Joplings became known as the “Harrods of Sunderland”.

On December 1954, disaster struck when a fire broke out and destroyed the entire store and its contents. The premises reopened in John Street in 1956. The store closed in May 2010 after going into administration with the loss of 100 jobs.

In 1897, Reginald Tyrrell and William Green opened their first shop in Southampton at 21-24 Angelsea Place. Described as a drapers, milliners and ladies and children's outfitters, the firm prospered and moved to Above Bar in the following year. It was a high-class shop, renowned for its two commissionaires, page boys and Italian chef.

The store became part of the John Lewis Partnership in 1934 but kept its traditional name. In 1940 it was destroyed in an air raid but within four months it was trading again in new premises at the Bargate. In 1956 it moved back to the old bombed site when bigger premises were needed following rapid expansion. It later changed its name to John Lewis to coincide with its move to the West Quay shopping centre in 2000.

Bristol Guild was founded in 1908 by local craftsmen as the Bristol Guild of Applied Art. During the 1930s, the shop became known locally for specialising in well-designed, handcrafted and manufactured artefacts.

The guild and neighbouring shops were damaged after an IRA bomb planted in a nearby dustbin exploded in December 1974. The street was full of Christmas shoppers but no-one was killed. By the 1980s it had expanded into larger premises and offered products from all over the world. It continues to trade today and is in the process of expanding its food and drinks department.

McIlroys on Regent Street in Swindon was a landmark building with its plate-glass frontage. It sold everything from ball gowns to bowler hats. The store served the town for 123 years before being demolished in 1998. The clock tower was taken down in the 1960s for safety reasons. Diana Dors regularly used to pop into the cafe and on 17 July 1962, The Beatles played a gig in the ballroom which was known as Macs and dubbed "the showplace of the West".

Its last owners Mackays announced in January 1998 it was to close, blaming competition from modern rivals like Debenhams and House of Fraser. A H&M clothing store now stands in its place.

Lewis' Department Store in Liverpool was established in 1856 by businessman David Lewis who set out to sell top quality ready-made goods to the working classes. It boasted three acres of retail space over nine floors including a silver service restaurant, a hairdressing salon and even an underground link to Liverpool Central Station. In 2007 the store went into liquidation and was sold as a going concern. It ceased trading in 2010.

Busbys was an independent department store on Manningham Lane, Bradford. Named after its owners, the landmark shop with its grand gothic architecture originally started life on Kirkgate with a staff of 40. By the late 1950s its success was such that the Manningham Lane department store employed 830 staff members.

Debenhams took over Busbys in August 1958 and it was later rebranded as a Debenhams store in 1974. A massive fire destroyed the building in 1979.

Kendals department store opened as Watts in 1832 in Manchester and became Kendal, Milne & Faulkner when three employees bought out the business and reopened it in 1836. It first started when the founder, John Watts, began a drapery business in Deansgate in 1796 which became prosperous and was later known as "The Bazaar". Kendals was purchased by Harrods in 1919, taken over by House of Fraser in 1959 and rebranded under its new owner's name in 2005.

James Robert Taylor founded JR Taylor in the heart of St Annes on the Fylde coast in Lancashire in 1901. The upmarket store was best known for its drapery but now prides itself on one-to-one personal service in cosmetics, perfumery and high-end designer wear.