A major department store has announced it is to close - prompting fears over the future of a run-down shopping area.

The Co-op in London Road, Brighton, has been open since before the First World War but said last night it would close within 18 months.

More than 60 jobs could be under threat if a buyer cannot be found to take on the four-storey business as a going concern.

The Co-operative Group hopes to sell 36 stores - including those in Brighton and Eastbourne - after a review found it would be better off focusing on its core businesses.

Shopkeepers said last night they were fighting a losing battle against graffiti and litter and warned the news would sound the death knell for the troubled London Road area.

May Cragg, who runs the nearby Patricia's flower shop, said: "Without the Co-op I'm not sure how much of a future there is in London Road. It is very sad.

"Now our trade is so bad we are thinking of closing after Christmas."

The street, the main gateway for pedestrians to the seafront from the north, has been earmarked for regeneration along with Lewes Road.

A spokeswoman for the Co-op said the Brighton and Eastbourne stores were being closed as part of a nationwide sell-off of the company's department store business, which lost more £4 million last year.

It is in discussion with Anglia Regional Co-operative Society about taking over the stores.

The group is trying to sell the London Road store as a going concern, which would mean all 39 full-time and 22 part-time staff keeping their jobs.

If this cannot be done the employees will either be sent to work at other Co Op businesses or made redundant and given help finding new jobs.

One employee, who did not want to be named, said: "We were given letters at work on Friday morning and everybody was really upset and shocked.

"Some of the staff have been working at that store all their lives, for 30 or 40 years, and couldn't believe it was being closed down."

Simon Burgess, chairman of the Sussex Co-operative Society, said: "This is obviously very sad news. People are going to really miss it - it is a real cornerstone. There are people who have shopped there for decades."

Business leaders were more optimistic about the news. Roger French, managing director of the Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company, said: "Someone with imagination and commercial flair could turn it into a real must-visit store. When a door closes another opens."

If the Co-op closes it will be the latest in a line of department stores, including Hanningtons and Vokins, to leave Brighton and Hove.

Julie Stanford, vice chairman of the Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce, said: "Obviously this will be a blow because London Road is a hard area to trade in.

"It is a great pity and it is a shop a lot of people have a lot of affection for."