Topshop was the coolest brand on the High Street — then Philip Green let it rot

Topshop, founded in 1964 as a branch of the Sheffield Cooperative Society, became the defining brand of British high-street fashion under Philip Green's Arcadia Group. At its peak in the 2000s, Topshop was a cultural phenomenon — its Oxford Circus flagship was a tourist destination, and its collaborations with Kate Moss and other designers generated global buzz.

Under Green's ownership, Arcadia (which also owned Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, and Miss Selfridge) underinvested in stores and e-commerce while extracting value through dividends and rent payments. The Oxford Circus flagship, once a destination, became shabby. Online competitors — ASOS, Boohoo, PrettyLittleThing — captured the young customers Topshop had defined.

Arcadia Group entered administration on 30 November 2020, during the pandemic. The Topshop brand, with Topman, Miss Selfridge and HIIT, went to ASOS for £265 million; the 440 Topshop stores did not, and closed. What ASOS bought was a name and a customer list, not a chain. The company itself is still on the register as AGL Realisations Limited — incorporated in 1929 as the Burton Group, renamed out of Arcadia in December 2021, and in liquidation ever since.