FOR over two centuries, Regent Street has forged a reputation as a display case for luxury merchandise. Named after the Prince Regent (later George IV), the street was the world’s first purpose-built shopping area and the mile-long parade quickly became a strong draw for the English aristocracy and gentry, as well as for wealthy cosmopolitan shoppers from mainland Europe.

But since the turn of this year, the street’s cachet appears in danger of being undermined by the departure of some of the best-known names in retail.

Dickins & Jones, once one of the capital’s most glamorous department stores, announced in June that two centuries of retail history would end in January, when it would shut its doors for the last time, after a huge rise in its rent bill and dwindling shopper interest.

Laura Ashley also decided to bale out of the street after a rent rise and then earlier this week the unthinkable happened. The Liberty department store said that it would close the Regent Street section of its store and move all its retail operation into the mock-Tudor building next door.

James Burt, director in Central London agency at Jones Lang LaSalle, the property consultant, believes the changes represent mixed news for the Crown Estate, the Queen’s property company, which owns Regent Street.

“Liberty’s void in Regent Street will be difficult to fill. It will change the atmosphere of the street because they do lend an element of cachet to the shopping environment,” he said.

However, Mr Burt believes that the departure of Dickins & Jones is of less concern. The store is to be converted into three giant new shop units which, he argues, could be a much bigger draw.

The departures coincide with an ambitious £500 million redevelopment programme by the Crown Estate.

Airline offices, opticians, kilt shops and banks have moved out and been replaced by young fashionable brands including Zara, Reiss, Coast and Mango. Apple, the technology company behind the iPod, added to the contemporary ambience with the opening of a flagship store last year.

Over the past three years 36 new shops and catering businesses have acquired space in Regent Street, even though rents for the best shop frontages have soared from £320 to £430 per sq ft over the past five years, according to Jones Lang LaSalle.

David Shaw, head of Regent Street strategy and development at the Crown Estate, believes that this provides evidence that the doom-mongers are wrong and the street is in rude health. “We want to make Regent Street a world-class shopping environment based on quality, heritage, style and success,” he said.

Because the Crown is not strictly a commercial landlord it can afford to be more flexible than many property companies. Increasingly, it is using its financial muscle and its reputation to persuade innovative new retailers to open in the street.

Mr Shaw points out that, although rents in the street have risen sharply in recent years, the Crown regularly offers flexible property leases to interested retailers, often including fixed annual uplifts in rent instead of controversial upward-only rent review clauses.

The Crown’s strategy appears to be working. Despite a downturn in the retail sector, Gerry Weber, the German fashion retailer, has just signed up to open a giant new store in one of the Crown’s new developments at 185-191 Regent Street and there is strong interest in the remaining space.

Meanwhile retailers including Gap, H&M, Boots and Hamleys are believed to be among the companies eyeing space in the Dickins & Jones store.

Chris Phillips of Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker, the property consultant advising on the reconfiguration of the Dickins & Jones store, insists that the new units will offer the kind of clean, modern, large space that retailers are craving.

THE ROAD TO STREET CREDIBILITY

It is worth more than £1 billion

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