It’s hard to think of a more rapid and shocking decline on the high street than the heartbreaking collapse of Cambridge’s Grafton Centre. Opened in 1983, the giant shopping complex quickly became the premier retail destination for miles around – arguably even more popular than the historic city centre itself.

I moved to Cambridge in 1995 and always remember it being absolutely heaving. About 8million people visit the city every year, contributing around £835 million to its economy. Every big-name brand was there, including BHS, Debenhams, Boots, River Island and more. I would frequently go to the cinema on the top floor, where the food court outside would be ram-packed.

Empty units were unheard of – when C&A withdrew from Britain in the early 2000s, the prime retail real estate at The Grafton’s entrance was snapped up by Next in a flash. The idea that The Grafton would be a ghost town in about 20 years was unthinkable. Yet as shops left one by one, so did customers – a vicious circle it struggled to break.

Even a £28.5million facelift in 2017-18 could not save the Grafton from the unstoppable surge towards online shopping.

Covid seemed to kill it off completely. Owner Legal and General decided to sell the 38,460sq m site for £61.4million – a staggering £37.6million less than the £99million it paid in the mid-2010s.

On average, 16.5% of units in shopping centres are vacant nationally, with both footfall and occupancy rates plunging after Covid. The Grafton was even worse, with a staggering 50% occupancy rate when Pioneer bought it in 2022.

New owner Pioneer is now spending a multi-million-pound sum on another revamp that vastly shrinks the retail space to make way for new research laboratories, offices and a 123-room Premier Inn – ending the Grafton’s days solely as a shopping centre. It says it is moving with the times and that the demand for retail I remember from my youth just doesn’t exist in the post-pandemic, internet age.

But although Cambridge residents welcome the saviour of an integral part of the city’s history, there is a desperate sadness that The Grafton will never return to the way it was.

Even for Grafton Centre manager John O’Shea, the redevelopment is a somewhat bittersweet moment. As someone who has worked as a retailer in Cambridge for much of his career, including as a teenage Saturday boy at Marks and Spencer, the Grafton is full of memories for him.

The much-missed former Chili’s restaurant in Abbeygate House was where he and his wife went on their first date. The site, most recently a British Heart Foundation shop, has been demolished as part of the overhaul. Although he is no fan of the Grafton’s architecture – he likens it to a “concrete UFO” – he says of its past: “I totally understand the sadness. I’ve classed myself as a retailer from the age of 15. In all honesty, I get it – but we have to adapt.”

Since coronavirus, retailers have slashed their shop floor space by a staggering 40%. The Grafton also had to contend with the fact that many brands already have stores in Cambridge city centre.

“It was quite obvious that in terms of a solid retail destination, this was no longer viable,” says O’Shea. “There is a huge critical mass of retail in the main city centre, with all of the big players and the lovely selection of independent retailers as well.

“There is just not the retail demand to fill all of the old retail space. Therefore, we’re going to have to adapt this.”

Subjit Jassy, development and asset management director at Pioneer, recognises that The Grafton has an “emotional attachment” for people in Cambridge.

But even before the devastation of the 2008 financial crash, he was seeing demand for retail units drop off.

“You no longer had two or three retailers bidding for space,” he says. “That slowed down so that instead of two or three firms bidding, it was only one, sometimes none.

“The impact of the internet has been way, way stronger than people ever expected. And then there’s a generational factor as well. Whilst you or I might look back and think how good it was going to our high street and the town centre, young people are very used to click and collect and ordering on their mobile phone.

“The only reason they come to town centres is something a bit more experiential, and that might be coffee, artisan products, a nice bakery or something like that.”

O’Shea hopes that creating 2,000 jobs with a new life sciences site, taking two levels of The Grafton’s car park, “will then help to maintain and sustain the businesses around us”.

He adds: “The bonus with scientists is you can’t do experiments at home, so therefore they have to come into the office, and we can keep this area sustainable.”

The new Premier Inn will also bring valuable custom to the area, while the new five-storey replacement for Abbeygate House in East Road will boast ground-floor restaurants, beneath more laboratory space.

Steven Hubbard, operations manager for Aromi, a Sicilian bakery in nearby Fitzroy Street, says:“I think what they’re doing with The Grafton is trying to bring some real life back into it.

“The fact that they’re bringing stuff like the Premier Inn should bring more people who are staying in Cambridge. I think it’ll bring more people to our doorstep.” He welcomed the Grafton’s support for independents.

The shops at the entrance next to the former Footlights restaurant, now a Gail’s Bakery, will stay the same, as will the PureGym at the back. Nine retail units will remain in total. The Great Court, which was a hive of activity in the past with events, will become a communal meeting space for workers in the life sciences area.

O’Shea says the Grafton will be one of the first places to offer life science offices in a city centre, making it a huge attraction for frustrated researchers trapped on remote business parks.

Jassy adds: “Not all employees want to be stuck out in a science park somewhere, and they like to have the vibrancy of a town centre around them.

“We saw this as an opportunity where an existing shopping centre was failing or had failed, and the rents have come down, where you’ve got sufficient demand from an alternative use, to reposition the building into something else that would be suitable for the new economy.

“That’s not to say that we thought the retail was completely dead, and not to say that we wanted to demolish and remove all retail completely and throw the baby out with the bath water. So we focused on what we thought worked, and we could retain.”

The life sciences element is welcomed by many. Joanna Barbieri, 40, of Cambridge, says: “The plan seems good, and there’s a desperate need for lab space.”

But like others, she says she is “conflicted” because the Grafton “was great before”.

Jonas Akapute, 53, of Cambridge, said: “It’s a little bit worrying. People in this area like the way it was before.

“There used to be a lot of shops in there. A lot of people used to go to the Grafton for entertainment. Online shopping has taken everything.”

Irina Vochin, 35, from March, Cambridgeshire, a film and media student at Anglia Ruskin University close to the Grafton, says: “It would be better if there were more shops, not less.

“There are only a few options. If they offered more, it would be better for people. They need something for entertainment, for a family with kids and something for old people. There is not much to do. It should be inclusive for everyone.”

Sharnie Sutton, 51, owner of Fitzroy Grill for six years, says: “I’ve seen the plans for what they want to do. I think it’ll be marvellous when it’s finished, although I’m not sure we need more laboratory space because we have plenty already.

“The Grafton always used to be for the locals. There were a lot of individual, small retailers – tattooists, hairdressers, small independent jewellers.

“High streets everywhere are dying. Will it ever get back to the way it was? This was valuable real estate in the middle of the city. It’s always been a big shopping area since the 80s. It’s a shame. It’s depressing because I remember how it was. This area was buzzing, and there has been such a decline over the last few years.”

If O’Shea and Jassy have their way, the Grafton will be very much for the locals again.

“We have a real desire to attract independent retailers to the new space that we’re creating,” says O’Shea.

Jassy adds: “Our utopia is lots of small businesses coming in, lots of startup businesses, seeing them grow from a one or two man band to something bigger and being real success stories for Cambridge.”

The Grafton was a massive success story of Cambridge’s past. If the redevelopment works, it will be a massive success story for its future, too.