Two years on from final closure: Looking back at Northampton Debenhams and its history

The Drapery building has been home to two well-known and loved department stores, but it has now been reduced to rubble

From Adnitts, to Debenhams, to a fire and demolition, to plans for student accommodation, one iconic Northampton building has a lot of history attached to it.

The building in the middle of the Drapery on the opposite side to Shipman’s used to be a hotspot for the town centre's hustle and bustle when it traded as the long-gone Adnitts, which was a department store dating back to the late-1870s.

It was then Debenhams after the national chain bought Adnitt Brothers. Debenhams became a part of the Northampton shopping experience and kept the Drapery on the map for decades until the chain went bust. The shop closed for a final time on May 8, 2021, when the town waved goodbye to its final department store.

On March 17 2022, a fire took hold of the empty building. Firefighters tackled the blaze, no one was hurt and two teenagers were arrested.

Months later the historic building was part-demolished after work started in October 2022.

Now, two years on from the Debenhams closure, Chronicle & Echo has dug through its archives and unearthed these snaps of Adnitts in its hey-dey, such as in 1965 when shoppers queued around the block to get at its New Year's Day deals and in 2021 when Debenhams reopened after the pandemic lockdown and shoppers queued for closing down sale bargains.

Here are 15 photos of the Drapery building through the years...

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