Skip to content

Marks & Spencer: Flagship Oxford Street store to be demolished

BBC Marks & Spencer's existing Oxford St storeBBC
Westminster Council had previously approved plans to pull down the Edwardian building

The demolition of Marks & Spencer's flagship Oxford Street store can go ahead, Sadiq Khan has ruled.

The retailer wants to replace the Art Deco building with a new block with a smaller shop, offices and a gym.

The mayor of London reviewed the plans after environmental concerns were raised, but has given Westminster Council approval to go ahead.

An environmental expert said the scheme was at odds with the mayor's own climate change commitments.

Due to the size of the proposed development, the plans had to be cleared by the Greater London Authority, as well as by the local authority, Westminster Council. Mr Khan approved the scheme in March, but reconsidered after a report was published into the potential carbon footprint of bulldozing the building at 458 Oxford Street.

The report's author Simon Sturgis warned the environmental impact of demolishing it would be so great it would contravene the London Plan - City Hall's guidance for new developments and planning applications.

'M&S should be embarrassed'

"It's absolutely crazy in my view," he said. "The climate crisis means we need to do things differently but they're doing things the same."

Mr Sturgis, who helped produce parts of the London Plan, thinks the existing store should instead be retrofitted and renovated.

"This scheme is not alone," he said. "There are quite a few schemes where perfectly good buildings are being demolished on favour of new shiny buildings."

He added: "This sort of approach has to change in order to meet the net-zero (emissions) trajectory."

Marks & Spencer CGI of the new storeMarks & Spencer
M&S said the "vibrant" new store, as depicted here, would be "fit for modern retail"

A spokesperson for Mr Khan said: "After a thorough assessment of this proposal, including the total carbon footprint involved, it was determined that grounds did not exist to allow the mayor to intervene."

Westminster Council is expected to give final approval for the development "imminently".

Mr Sturgis wants Marks & Spencer to withdraw the plans. "M&S should be embarrassed by the scheme," he said. "They have their own environmental commitments and this disregards that."

A spokesperson for the retailer - which has pledged to reduce its emissions to net zero by 2040 - said: "Marble Arch has served our customers well but it has no capacity for further development, limiting the experience we can offer."

Once planning permission is granted, only the secretary of state for housing and communities has the power to "call in" the decision.