Harvey Nichols used to be one of the most glamorous department stores in the world. But now the business has gone up for sale – and it looks as if only the retailer Next and Frasers Group – owned by Mike Ashley of Sports Direct fame – are bidding on it. There is nothing wrong with either company. But the lack of interest in one of London’s most iconic retailers is a sad sign of the city’s economic decline. 

In its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, Harvey Nicks, as it was always known, was emblematic of the easy money, low-tax, globalised trading hub that London had become. Patronised by Princess Diana and popularised in........

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