A TOY shop is closing down.

Hawkin’s Bazaar, on Friary Walk, Crowngate shopping centre, Worcester displayed shop window signs on Thursday announcing a closing down sale.

The signs in the shop window read ‘everything must go.’

Staff confirmed that the store has come to the end of its tenancy after trading on the premises since November 2015.

Various businesses in the shopping centre have closed down in the past year.

In July Carluccio’s closed its branch in the shopping centre after the Italian restaurant chain announced it was closing 30 branches across the country.

The company blamed the closures on “rising business costs and unsustainable rental levels.”

In January, popular independent record store Rise, on Chapel Walk closed after news that its sister store in Bristol was being taken over by record company Rough Trade.

House Of Fraser is the latest store to hit hard times as it was announced in June the Worcester store would be closing in January 2019.

However, last month staff at the Worcester branch were told the store could be saved.

Hawkin’s Bazaar has had troubles in the past.

The chain of toy and curiosity shops was sold off by its private equity backer, Primary Capital in 2016. In 2011 it narrowly avoided folding and in 2012 more than 50 stores nationwide were closed.

Britain’s struggling retailers have axed nearly 150,000 jobs this year with experts predicting more in 2019, research for the Press Association has shown.

End of year figures compiled by the Centre for Retail Research show that 148,132 jobs have been wiped out as almost 20,000 shops and restaurants closed their doors.

The Worcester News approached Crowngate and Hawkin’s Bazaar but both declined to comment.