The evolution of the British high street

The butcher, baker and greengrocer are traditional shops that were once part of every British high street after the second world war.

In fact, High Street, is the UK's most common street name and there are more than 5,000 of them even today.

They developed at the turn of the twentieth century as the town's answer to the marketplace

Market stalls gave way to fixed shops offering personal service convenience and even home delivery.

In the 1950s these were the places where locals would go to buy food and homewares, but since then the British High Street has experienced enormous change.

Matthew Hopkinson, Director of the Local Data Company, said: "Changes since the 1950s on the high street have been significant."

He added that department stores used to be the key focus of many town centres. Chain retailers and the expansion of supermarkets then began to mark a change.

Out-of-town shopping and housing has changed the way we live our lives and shop, with the focus taken from the town centres.

Online shopping has also made a marked change on the UK shopping industry: now people can shop everywhere and anywhere.

The biggest change in the last two decades has been in the type of shops that we've seen springing up on the high street.

Cafes, sandwich bars, hairdressers, opticians, gyms and estate agents are just some of the new arrivals on the main street now.

The collapse of well known shops including BHS and Austin Reed exemplifies the changes that have taken place on our high streets over the last 60 years.

The advent of the internet and online shopping means we rarely have to leave our homes to buy what we need.