Elgin town centre: Inside look at the health of the most popular shopping streets and St Giles Shopping Centre

The health of the Elgin town centre can certainly be a topic that sparks debate.

The rise of shoppers turning to online for their needs coupled with Covid-19 and cost of living crisis have created challenges.

However, there is a sense of positivity with the arrival of new businesses, existing businesses remaining strong and redevelopment plans.

People sometimes lament empty units, worry there are too many cafes or charity shops and take sides in the battle between indies and chains.

But what is the reality?

The Press and Journal has now launched a tracker for Elgin’s high streets.

After weeks of work we have mapped the number of shops and empty businesses in key areas of the town centre.

In our project, we found that some units have been vacant for more than 21 years.

But despite some longer-term empty units, Elgin has a vacancy rate of just over 11% – and new businesses are opening all the time.

The tracker shows which units are occupied and which are vacant, as well as what used to fill the unit if they’re closed. We have also recorded roughly how long they’ve been empty for.

We’ll be keeping our maps and charts up-to-date when shops open and close, in order to show exactly how Elgin is changing.

How many units are there on Elgin’s shopping streets and centre and how many are vacant?

For our high streets, we mapped out units on Batchen Street, High Street, Commerce Street, Harrow Inn Close and Thunderton Place.

We have also mapped out the floor plans for the St Giles Shopping Centre.

South Street had the highest vacancy rates, with six of 36 (16.7%) stores empty, followed by High Street which has 15 vacant units out of 118 (12.7%).

Batchen Street has two vacant units and 19 which are occupied- a vacancy rate of 9.5%. Meanwhile Commerce Street has a vacancy rate of 5.3%, made up of one vacant unit and 17 occupied units.

Harrow Inn Close and Thunderton Place, the two shortest streets that we track, both boasted full occupancy.

Harrow Inn Close has eight units on the street, while Thunderton Place has nine.

The total number of vacant units across all six streets is 24, while the average vacancy rate is just 11.4%.

‘Work happening behind the scenes’

Sarah Medcraf is positive about the future of the Elgin town centre.

She is the Moray Chamber of Commerce CEO.

And she chairs the Moray Town Centres Task Force which is on a mission to entice new businesses to the area, fill vacant units and help current businesses grow.

The group is made up of representatives from the local public, private and third sectors.

She said: “Twenty-four vacant units sounds high, as many of them will appear empty.

“However, there is a great deal of work happening behind the scenes, engaging with landlords and business owners.

“We know that many of these units will probably be filled in the next few months.

“It just looks like nothing is happening.

“Between the demolition of the South Street buildings for the development and ongoing work on some of the units, by Christmas and into the spring, we should have far fewer vacant units.”

She stressed the importance of supporting local shops which will encourage existing shops to grow and attract new businesses to Elgin.

St Giles Shopping Centre

Recent years have been tough for St Giles Shopping Centre suffering closures of stores such as Monsoon and Superdrug. Mountain Warehouse also moved to a new location.

Out of the 26 units in the centre, 12 are currently sitting empty.

This results in a 46.15% vacancy rate for the centre – compared to only 12.7% for Elgin’s High Street.

Which town centre units have been vacant the longest?

As part of our project, we wanted to find out how long vacant units are lying empty before being taken on by a new business.

Our data uses the best estimate we are able to give for the closure of each unit, and what they were before they closed. This is worked out using a mixture of Google maps, newspaper archives, reviews and more wherever information is available.

Most of them were the bigger buildings, as smaller units tend to be snapped up quickly.

In Elgin, the longest empty unit is the Elgin Club on Commerce Street.

The 10 Commerce Street building was used as a private social club for men until the late 20th Century when ladies were allowed to get membership.

In December 2002, the club shut its doors due to falling membership and increased running costs.

Over the years, there has been many plans to breathe new life into the building. However, sadly so far none have moved forward.

Moravian Digital Press on South Street has been vacant for the second longest period of time out of the units we were able to find dates for, after the business moved in 2011- 13 years ago.

The third longest vacant unit is the former Junners Toymaster store on South Street, which has been vacant for more than eight years after shutting its doors for the final time in January 2016.

‘The empty units tend to be the bigger buildings’

For two decades, David Robertson has ran Bijou Elgin on the town’s Batchen Street.

Around 14 years ago, he opened up the business in its forever home in what used to be home to the former Giles Cafe Bar.

He said:  “It is certainly a nuanced discussion, with Elgin below the national vacancy average for the UK’s High Streets, which is 14%.

“You need to look beyond the headline figures and into the detail.

“A lot of the vacant units are the larger buildings and owners need to look at how to bring them back into use.

“Could they maybe be spilt as smaller units are being filled up quickly in Elgin.

“Also at the moment, office space is at a premium, so they could redevelop it into offices.”

What types of units does Elgin have?

Within our tracker, we also keep tabs on a more specific description of each unit.

Some of the most commonly spoken about units on Elgin’s high street include hair and beauty units and the number of takeaways in the town centre.

Data for the high street shows that there’s five hairdressers currently on the streets we track, while there’s nine barbers.

There is also eight beauty and nail salons.

For takeaways, there’s seven, but some restaurants may also offer takeaway options, which haven’t been included in this number.

Meanwhile, in the St Giles shopping centre, there’s 14 total occupied units.

These are made up of nine shopping units, two services, two food and drink outlets and one hair and beauty business.

Where can I see more?

We will be tracking places opening and closing on the above mentioned streets and shopping centre as often as possible.

You can view our Elgin high street trackers which include both the shopping streets and the centre.

Can you help us keep our tracker up to date?

All of the data included within our high street tracker is collected manually by the data team and the reporter team in Elgin, and includes units opening and closing we’ve written articles on, as well as things we’ve noticed while out on foot in the area.

Our last open dates may be estimates based on the best information we could find.

But we know we might not always spot everything, or get every closure date right.

We appreciate all the support we’ve received for our trackers so far, and would love if you would like to help us keep it up to date.

If there’s anything you spot opening or closing you’d like us to know about, or if you have more accurate information on closing dates of units or what the last business to occupy a unit was, you can let us know using the form below.