Shopping in Chichester: Plea to support our shops and make our city shine following offer for the former House of Fraser store

It comes as we bring the news that the former House of Fraser and Army and Navy building in West Street is under offer which, if successful, could play a key part in securing our city centre’s future.

The Observer has learned that plans were underway to ‘repurpose’ the listed building with the district council expressing the need for an ‘active frontage’ on the ground floor, and the developer hoping to build flats above the ground floor. The landlord of the West Street building, Savills Investment, said the building is once again under offer with the price retained for those who make a bid.

The popular department store shut its doors for the last time on January 27, 2019, after the company went into administration and was subsequently bought by Sports Direct which made the decision to close the site.

Chichester residents have called for discount retailer Primark to take over the building but the company remains firm that a move into Chichester would be unviable with large stores in Portsmouth, Crawley and Brighton.

The building has long been thought of as being a major piece of the puzzle in ensuring our city centre thrives and our readers have been sharing their views as to what they think the future should look like for the building.

A number of new businesses have also been opening their doors in our city centre and village shops and today the Observer urged everyone to support them where they can. These fantastic local businesses not only employ our local residents but also attract shoppers and visitors from the surrounding areas bringing benefits to other businesses as well.

We know there is a lot of work to do. You only need to look at the number of city centre empty shops which need to be filled and the sad state of affairs at Chichester Gate with the departure of Air Arena a major loss.

More more see ‘These are the 16 empty shops in the heart of Chichester - what businesses would you like to see bring them to life again?’ and ‘Petition to bring back Air Arena Chichester reaches over 200 signatures’

But if we work together, support our local businesses and tell everyone we know just how great our city is then we give Chichester and our district the best possible chance.