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Last minute shoppers never learn! Nostalgic photos show Brits rushing to the high street at the eleventh hour for Christmas presents

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Last minute shoppers never learn! Nostalgic photos show Brits rushing to the high street at the eleventh hour for Christmas presents

By ELEANOR DYE

Published: | Updated:

Everyone knows the last-minute panic of trying to find the perfect Christmas gift and frantically rushing to the stores.

This year is no different, as shoppers have taken to the streets across the UK to stock up on what they need with just two days to go.

But it seems the last-minute shopper never finds out – as fascinating footage discovered in the 1980s and 1990s shows how the Great British High Street inevitably becomes packed with people each year in the final days before Christmas.

Photos show bustling crowds in Oxford Street and Hamleys Toy Store in London, frantically trying to do their shopping.

Meanwhile, Selfridges shoppers can be seen forming an organized queue to buy the new Spice Girls dolls in 1997, while a similar queue can be seen forming outside Toys ‘R Us in Brent Cross this year- there.

And it’s not just London: huge gatherings can be seen on the streets of Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow in a last-minute rush to the high street.

Despite the rise of online shopping and the tendency for customers to shy away from it due to empty stores and soaring parking costs, it seems the appeal of the high street at Christmas time remains the way to go. excellence of immersing yourself in the festive spirit.

That is, if you don’t mind the crowds – or the risk of everything selling out if you leave everything to the last minute.

These very nostalgic images will take you back in time before Christmas.

It seems the last minute shopper never learns, as Brits are always rushing to the stores at the last minute. Pictured: Oxford Street in 1993

Fascinating footage discovered in the 1990s and 1980s shows the rush for last-minute Christmas shopping. Pictured: Bargain hunters at Woolworths in Holyhead

It was spend, spend, spend all the way at Marks and Spencer on Christmas Eve 1993

Huge rallies can be seen on the streets of Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow (pictured, in 1994).

Photos show bustling crowds in Oxford Street and Hamleys Toy Store in London (photo, 1992).

Shoppers enjoy 24 hour shopping at Tesco supermarket in Brent Cross early in the morning

Liverpool’s Cavern Walks saw lots of window shopping on December 3, 1984

Thousands of people watch Christmas lights lit on Church Street, Liverpool in 1986

Oxford Street has always been the place to do your Christmas shopping, but not if you want to avoid the crowds. Photographed in 1993

Christmas lights lit in Broad Street Mall, Reading, in 1998

Terry Wogan turns on the Christmas lights on Oxford Street in 1998

Hamleys toy store is a must for Christmas shopping in London. Photographed in 1992

It’s crowded inside – and that’s after queuing to get in in the first place. Pictured: Queues outside Hamleys in 1993

Little children look with wide eyes at Fenwick’s window in November 1987

Christmas shopping on Market Street near the Arndale Center in Manchester in 1986

A very nostalgic photo shows shoppers queuing for new Teletubby dolls outside Toys R Us in Brent Cross, London, 1997.

Shoppers on Oxford Street in 1983 with bags full of clothes and Christmas shopping

Christmas shoppers at Selfridges on Oxford Street hoping for the chance to buy the new Spice Girl dolls in 1997

Church Street in Liverpool on December 7, 1993 features in set of nostalgic images

Christmas shopping at Owen Owen department store in Coventry – with gift sets of toiletries and perfume proving popular