Christmas shopping from a more civilised age! As Britain is gripped by festive getaway chaos and a looming recession, how the country used to get its last-minute purchases done in style

Everyone will be familiar with the last-minute panic of trying to find the perfect Christmas present and making a frenzied dash to the shops.

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 since the bustling heydays of the 1980s and 1990s, Britain’s ailing high streets have plunged into disrepair with many now languishing on the brink of total collapse as business dries up.

Once vibrant shopping precincts, packed with visitors and shops, have been transformed into dismal ghost towns, with empty stores left boarded up for years.

Plummeting footfall has left town centres battling for survival, as more and more Brits rely on online shopping instead of old fashioned window shopping.

So dire are the circumstances, it has led to once iconic high street juggernauts like Woolworths, Debenhams and Wilkos closing for good, with thousands of jobs lost.

Meanwhile, as the nation’s retailers continue to feel the pinch, other companies have sought to shrink their number of stores.

Nostalgic photos from the 1980s and 1990s at Christmas paint a totally different view of the the nation’s packed town centres.

It appears the last minute shopper never learns as Brits always make a last-minute dash to the shops. Pictured: Oxford Street in 1993

Fascinating unearthed images from the 1990s and 1980s show the last-minute Christmas shopping rush. Pictured: Bargain hunters in Woolworths in Holyhead

But its not the same now. with picture taken only last week in Evesham showing the shopping centre practically empty just days before Christmas

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

They show bustling crowds in London‘s Oxford Street and Hamleys Toy Store frantically trying to get their shopping done.

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

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

Despite the rise in online shopping and dreary condition of some of the nation’s town centres, shoppers appeared to still be out in force this festive season in London and other major cities.

But the story was less optimistic in some of the UK’s shopping malls. Evesham’s Riverside Shopping Centre looked like empty last week.

MailOnline visited the site over the weekend – and with just four days to go until Christmas, there only appeared to be a handful of shoppers.

Local residents Sheron Annis, 76, said: ‘I’ve lived in Evesham for 72 years and it’s very, very sad. This place is an absolute disaster.

Huge gatherings can be seen lining the streets of Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow (pictured, in 1994)

The pictures show bustling crowds in London ‘s Oxford Street and Hamleys Toy Store (pictured, 1992)

Shoppers take advantage of twenty-four hour shopping at the Tesco superstore in Brent Cross in the early hours of the morning

But this week in Evesham, the town’s shopping centre appeared empty. Of over 40 units, only three are open – Home Bargains, a small mobile phone shop and the café

In Evesham’s shopping centre, residents say there are now more pigeons than shoppers

WATERLOOVILLE: Footfall has slumped in the Hampshire town, which was once a bustling hub for locals. Now it appears as though it as been abandoned

WATERLOOVILLE: The boarded up Wellington Way Shopping Centre just off the high street

Liverpool’s Cavern Walks saw plenty of window shoppers on December 3, 1984

‘You can’t even use the toilets anymore. They’ve locked them up. It’s an embarrassment for the town.’

Of over 40 units, only three are open – Home Bargains, a small mobile phone shop and the café.

The central feature now is a cordoned off area under the domed, glass roof where strategically placed buckets collect water when it rains.

There is Union flag bunting but no-one can quite remember which Jubilee it went up for. Back in 1988 when it opened, this privately-owned centre was thriving.

The faded sign on the wall outside reads: ‘Menswear, Food, Children, Footwear, Health & Beauty, Sports & Outdoors, Café, Womenswear, Confectionary, Homewares, Gifts & Accessories, Fashion, Music & Electrical, Variety.’

Thousands of people watch the Christmas lights being switched on on Church Street, Liverpool in 1986

Oxford Street has always been the place to go for Christmas shopping – but not if you want to avoid crowds. Pictured in 1993

Christmas lights being switched on in Broad Street Mall, Reading, in 1998

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

Now it’s just boarded up shops and buckets.

Residents in the town – dubbed the saddest in Britain – have found themselves caught between laughing and crying.

‘It’s been bad for years,’ added Sheron. ‘My granddaughter is 12 now but when she was younger she used to say, ‘Can we go to the Centre to count the buckets’.

‘Evesham has gone to the dogs. It used to be thriving but bit by bit it has vanished and there is nothing for young people to do.

‘We have a leisure centre but not everyone can afford that and we see a lot of vandalism. It’s heart-breaking.’

Pointing to the cordoned off area, one local said: ‘We used to have a fountain there. Now we get a fountain every time it rains’

It is a similar story in the Hampshire town of Waterlooville, near Portsmouth.

Its high street has suffered from stores closing, with the once-vibrant shopping precinct now a shadow of its former self.

Meanwhile in leafy Banbury, in Oxfordshire, locals there say their town centre has bit left reeling – with empty stores blighting the high street.

Toy shop Hamleys is a staple for Christmas shopping in London. Pictured in 1992

It’s busy inside – and this is after queueing to get in in the first place. Pictured: Queues outside Hamleys in 1993

Small children look wide-eyed into Fenwick’s window display in November 1987

Christmas shopping on Market Street by the Arndale Centre in Manchester in 1986

One very nostalgic picture shows shoppers queueing for the new Teletubby dolls outside Toys R Us in Brent Cross, London, 1997

But in Banbury (pictured) earlier this year, residents said their high street had fallen into hard times with stores closing down and remaining abandoned