Fig & Fox has closed two of its four stores. The Winchester branch shut in February 2026 and Basingstoke traded for the last time on 31 March. The Hampshire brand’s Romsey and Salisbury shops remain open, and the company is still active on the Companies House register as of June 2026.
“The refurbishments are coming to an end,” James Mitchell said in August 2025, preparing to open Fig & Fox’s fourth store at 52-54 St George’s Street in Winchester. It closed six months later.
Going into that summer, the brand had two shops. It came out of the season with four. By the end of March 2026, two of them were gone.
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Fig & Fox Stores, June 2026
- Romsey, 42-44 The Hundred, SO51 8BX: Open
- Salisbury, 46 High Street, SP1 2NT: Open
- Winchester, 52-54 St George’s Street: Closed February 2026
- Basingstoke: Closed 31 March 2026
Source: figandfox.co.uk and Companies House, June 2026
Who Are Fig & Fox?
Fig and Fox Design Ltd was incorporated on 20 June 2022. Helen Mitchell, who comes from a fashion design background, was the founding director. James Mitchell, who worked in theatre, joined the board in April 2024. The pair built the brand around independent makers and local suppliers, selling gifts, candles, homeware and houseplants alongside a café menu of locally sourced food, baked goods and specialty coffee.
Their first shop opened in October 2022 at 42-44 The Hundred in Romsey, Hampshire. “The shop has had a strong start with customers visiting from Winchester and further afield,” James Mitchell said in October 2023, when Test Valley Borough Council awarded the business a £750 business incentive grant.
That same autumn, the couple announced a Christmas trial shop at Basingstoke’s Festival Place and a seasonal stall at Winchester’s Christmas Market. Basingstoke later became a permanent branch. A permanent Winchester shop would not follow until the summer of 2025.
Which Stores Have Closed?
Winchester went first. The branch at 52-54 St George’s Street, the former NAAFI Café, opened on 22 August 2025, traded through its first Christmas, and shut in February 2026.
Basingstoke followed. Its final day of trading was 31 March 2026.
Half the brand’s shops closed within roughly six weeks of each other.
Salisbury opened the same summer as Winchester and is still trading. The owners have not publicly said why one of the two new shops survived where the other did not.
Why Did Fig & Fox Close Two Branches?
Helen and James Mitchell said rising costs and the April budget changes had made it impossible to keep trading in Winchester. Basingstoke closed on the same grounds.
Each of those costs had been confirmed before the Winchester shop opened in August 2025:
- Employer National Insurance rose from 13.8% to 15% in April 2025, announced in the October 2024 Budget
- The NI secondary threshold fell from £9,100 to £5,000 per employee, frozen there until at least 2031
- The National Living Wage rose from £12.21 to £12.71 an hour in April 2026, set at the November 2025 Autumn Budget
- Employment Rights Act measures on statutory sick pay, zero-hours contracts and paternity leave also took effect in April 2026
The arithmetic behind those headlines is stark for a small employer. Accountancy firm Whyfield puts the full cost of employing one National Living Wage worker at £30,258 in 2026, against £18,734 in 2021/22. That is a 62% rise in five years.
Across the sector, the British Retail Consortium estimated the NI change alone would add £2.3 billion a year to UK retail costs. In a 2026 BRC survey, 84% of retail finance leaders ranked employment costs among their top three concerns, up from 21% in mid-2025.
Which Stores Are Still Open?
Two Fig & Fox shops are trading as of June 2026:
| Store | Address | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Romsey | 42-44 The Hundred, SO51 8BX | Open |
| Salisbury | 46 High Street, SP1 2NT | Open |
Both are dog friendly, serve food and coffee, and open seven days a week. Romsey, the original shop, also runs an escape room upstairs. Current opening hours are listed on the brand’s website.
Fig and Fox Design Ltd filed its annual confirmation statement with Companies House on 2 April 2026, two days after Basingstoke’s last day. The company is listed as active.
A Hard Year for Independent Shops
The pressures behind these closures are national. The Centre for Retail Research forecast around 17,350 UK store closures in 2025, with roughly 14,660 of them independent retailers, nearly double the previous year’s figure.
The British Independent Retailers Association warned in late 2025 that most independent shops would still face higher business rates from April 2026. BIRA chief executive Andrew Goodacre said the Budget’s reduced multipliers fell well short of what had originally been proposed.
Against that backdrop, the two Fig & Fox branches that closed were the two opened in the summer of 2025, after every one of those costs was already law. The two still trading are the ones the brand had more time to establish.
One line on the Fig & Fox website points at what comes next. Winchester Christmas Market is listed as a future roaming event, marked TBC. That is the same seasonal stall through which the brand first tested the city in 2023, before any lease was signed on St George’s Street. The permanent shop lasted six months. A market pitch carries no lease and no rates bill.
