M&S Oxford Street

Following three years of discussion and debate, permission was granted last week for M&S to rebuild its flagship store on Oxford Street.  

The store, which sits at the junction with Orchard Street, just to the south of our area, was originally built in art deco style in 1929. The retailer applied to rebuild in 2021, with plans that included new retail space, alongside a café, gym and offices across nine floors.  

Under proposed plans, the new store will be one of the top 1% of new buildings in London on sustainable performance, using less than a quarter of the energy of the existing structure and half of the water consumption. 95% of the existing building materials will be recovered, recycled or reused. 

M&S and its architects had explored options to retrofit the existing site into a new, modern flagship store however, each design was deemed untenable due to the complexity of the site which is made up of three different buildings – of different heights, sizes and age. The heavy refurbishment required would likely involve more embodied carbon and the remaining structure would limit options to improve energy use. 

It is hoped that the newly refurbished store will give a boost to the western end of the historic shopping destination that Oxford Street has played since the late 1800s, and support economic growth in the area, including Baker Street Quarter, as a gateway to the area from the south.  

You can read the statement from M&S about the Oxford Street approval here.