The empty building that used to be the home of Marks & Spencer in Aberdeen is one of the first things you see when you arrive off the train and come into the city centre. The sign has gone, though the shape of the lettering can still be made out; the windows are blacked out and the doors boarded up. As a teenager, I spent hours on Union Street, its main thoroughfare, nicknamed the Granite Mile after the local silver-grey stone.
It was the place to try on all the latest fashions from the likes of Clockhouse and Chelsea Girl. The street used to be packed with shoppers from across the north-east of Scotland. "I come to Union Street to take a bus somewhere else... there's nothing to shop for now… it's horrendous," complains Marie Sim, a lifelong Aberdeen resident.
It's a similar story across the country: High Streets, once bursting with shops, hit first by the rise of out-of-town retail centres and then by online commerce. But Aberdeen is in the thick of an ambitious turnaround plan. The port city has essentially declared war on its empty shop problem, taking an unusually hands-on approach to filling vacant units and bringing long-neglected upper floors of buildings into use.
On top of that, the council is pouring tens of millions into trying to make the city centre a destination again. Like many other places, it's leaning into the "experience economy", with a new indoor food and drink market and a major redevelopment of the seafront. High Streets are integral to how we feel about where we live.
The sight of vacant shops and graffiti can quickly become a vicious circle, deterring shoppers, discouraging investment and leading to anti-social behaviour. Politicians of all stripes have been trying for years to breathe new life into town centres - and Andy Burnham, who has made a focus on "place" part of his political identity, is the latest. He argues they should become "symbols of Britain's renaissance".
And if they're to survive, do town centres need a fundamental rethink? One in eight properties on British High Streets are currently vacant, according to Green Street, the property and retail analytics company, a number that's stayed stubbornly high for years. "If there was a silver bullet, it would have been fired years ago," says Jackie Sadek, a former government adviser on urban regeneration, who has spent nearly four decades working in town centre renewal.
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