WH Smith is to become the latest in a long list of names that have disappeared from the British high street. Fans of patronymic shopfronts advertising moderate prices and moderate quality have mourned a string of losses, with Woolworths, Debenhams, and Wilko all biting the dust in the last two decades.

In this latest case, WH Smith has cut a deal to sell off all their high street stores to Modella Capital, a consumer and retail investment firm which already owns Hobbycraft and The Original Factory Shop. Branches located in airports and train stations surpass the high street stores both in number and revenue generated, so WH Smith PLC, the overarching company, released an announcement on Friday explaining the offload. Carl Cowling, the group’s chief executive, is quoted as saying: “Now is the right time for a new owner to take the High Street business forward and for the WHSmith leadership team to focus exclusively on our Travel business.” But, according to the company, the disappearance of WH Smith’s name from the high street does not mean a disappearance of the shops themselves.

Reports suggest otherwise. According to the Guardian, more than half of WH Smith’s shops could face closure under new ownership, with as many as 250 high street shops disappearing. Then there is Modella Capital’s own record. Its website lists only two investments in its portfolio, and incudes Ted Baker, which closed its final 31 stores last year and went into administration. This does not bode well of the future of WH Smith.

More bizarre, however, is Modella’s decision to rebrand WH Smith as “TG Jones”. As the FT confirmed, there neither is, nor was, any TG Jones to speak of. So while WH Smith grew organically in the middle of the 19th century through newsstands at railway stations before hitting the high street in the Eighties, TG Jones, on the other hand, draws a blank. But, as Modella’s company spokesperson claims: “Jones carries the same sense of family and reflects these stores being at the heart of everyone’s high street.”

Whatever the new name, the British High Street is in serious decline — and has been for a long time. Go to any town centre and you’ll see a half-empty shopping centre and a proliferation of American candy stores. The shops that do remain will largely be minor parts of some enormous — usually American — private equity firm. In fact, private equity firms spent some $200 billion between 2016 and 2023 on British companies, mostly by buying up the British high street.

The rather limp rebrand of WH Smith merely reflects this trend. The British high street’s best days are in the rear-view mirror, and no amount of confected nostalgia will convince us otherwise.