In the early 1900s, the highly desirable 220,000 square-foot site on Station Road was home to Sopers – a department store chain founded in 1860 by Samuel Henry Soper. Sopers was a formal store in which products would be kept behind the counter to be brought out for inspection by customers. The first of its kind in Harrow, eager shoppers from around the borough would flock to the store to buy the latest fashions and cosmetics.
In the 1960s, the Sopers store became Debenhams, offering six floors of clothing, cosmetics and homewares to Harrow’s shoppers. In 2019, Debenhams went into administration, and in 2021, during the global COVID-19 pandemic, the store in Harrow shut up shop for good.