Billy Bookcases & Meatballs To Hit Oxford Street, IKEA To Take Topshop Flagship Store

Oxford Street is an iconic location, The nearly 2km road from Marble Arch to Tottenham Court Road has been synonymous with retail and London’s history.

In the recording studio of the HMV flagship store, a demo disc of The Beatles was cut and led to the band’s long-term recording contract with EMI. 

Oxford Street is home to the London College of Fashion and Selfridges. It will soon be the place to buy from the world’s biggest furniture brand: IKEA.

London’s West End shopping district has seen challenging times, particularly after the departure of anchor stores from the famous shopping strip. So news that Ingka Investments, part of Ikea’s parent group, has bought the Topshop former flagship store on Oxford Street has created a real buzz.

Brands like Topshop, Debenhams and Miss Selfridge have disappeared from Oxford Street, leaving a significant dent; it is estimated that there has been an £8 billion impact on trade in the retail space since the beginning of the pandemic. Therefore news that a somewhat different style of tenant had taken the space for an estimated £378m has understandably attracted media interest.

Ikea has announced plans for the store set to open in Fall 2023, which follows on from its roll-out of other inner-city outlets. Cities such as Paris, New York, Tokyo and Madrid all have IKEA inner-city stores. In smaller formats to the usual warehouse size stores, the city centre layouts have fewer furniture products and focus on accessories and room planning with IKEA product support. The full IKEA range will be available to order via its home delivery service.

Peter Jelkeby, head of Ikea’s UK and Ireland business explains why traditional bricks and mortar stores are still such a big part of the businesses strategy:

“Even though online shopping continues to accelerate at a rapid pace, our physical stores, large and small, will always be an essential part of the Ikea experience – as places for inspiration and expertise, community and engagement.

Meatball fans can breathe a sigh of relief, as IKEA also confirmed that the store will contain a cafe alongside the various room-sets from which to browse products. The Ikea store at Oxford Street will be the companies biggest inner-city format store to date.

The sale of this 9,290 sq metre (100,000 sq ft) store completes the selling-off of assets from the Philip Green’s Arcadia Group empire.

There is a huge potential for IKEA to deliver retail magic in this space, utilising the best of technology and service and creating a new place where shoppers can engage with and discover more about the brand. Yet the bigger picture for Oxford Street needs to be focussed beyond retail and on creating a place to be, not just a place to buy.

Earlier this year, there was much controversy over the Marble Arch Mound situated at the end of Oxford Street and created as an attraction to bring what the council hoped would be an additional 1000 visitors a day to the area. A full review has been conducted into the project which cost Westminster Council £6 million on instead of the projected £2 million and the plan to charge visitors for entry had to be overturned.

Westminster Council has highlighted additional plans for future investment to make Oxford Street greener, sustainable and visitor-friendly. The mound may have been controversial but exciting and consumer-focussed solutions should hold the key for the success of places to ‘be’. And a lot of those opportunities needn’t cost the earth or even £6 million when the focus is on accessibility and inclusion.