Shoe shop chain to shut store leaving just one left on the high street leaving shoppers ‘absolutely gutted’
A MUCH-LOVED shoe shop chain is shutting its doors for good, leaving just one branch left standing.
Magnus Shoes, which has been a high street fixture for nearly three decades, is closing its Chiltern Street store in London.
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The branch will close for good at the end of May 2025 and fans are heartbroken.
The store, which has catered to customers with larger shoe sizes for 28 years, announced the sad news in a heartfelt Facebook post.
It blamed soaring rent prices, the fallout from Covid, and the loss of key footfall from neighbouring shop Long Tall Sally, which shut down in 2019.
In the post, the business wrote: “Due to the loss of Long Tall Sally in 2019, which brought taller customers to the street, allied to demand never really recovering after Covid and a hefty rent increase from June, sadly we have to close our store down.”
The retailer informed customers it would still operate from its online website.
It added: “We still have all the new Spring/Summer stock coming in so please continue to support us.”
Shoppers have been left reeling, with devastated customers flooding the comments.
One said: “No!!! Absolutely gutted!”
Another wrote: “What a shame. It’s been a great pleasure for me to choose from a great range of shoes in the Chiltern Street shop for many, many years. You’ll be missed!”
Another added: “So sad to hear this. I always prefer to try shoes on in shops rather than online – they can vary so much.”
The Chiltern Street store has become a destination for those with bigger feet with loyal customers travelling from all over the country to try before they buy.
Magnus Shoes has confirmed it will still serve customers online and from its Northampton HQ, which remains open and is just off the M1 motorway.
It’s yet another blow for the British high street, which continues to be battered by closures, rising costs and changing shopping habits.
Shoe Zone, which has almost 300 stores nationwide, recently shut its seaside branch on Devonshire Road, sending local shoppers into a spin.
Independent retailer Hilary & Alice in Norfolk is also shutting up shop after struggling with dwindling footfall and sky-high overheads.
Even major names like Poundland are under pressure, with owner Pepco exploring a sale of the chain after a £641million profit loss.
High street giant New Look is quietly pulling the plug on almost 100 stores, launching closing down sales in towns up and down the UK.
And in a historic blow, Beales, one of Britain’s oldest department stores, is shutting its final branch in Poole later this month after more than 140 years.
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: "The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025."
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
"By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer's household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020."
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