Marks and Spencer threatens to abandon Oxford Street if revamp plans are cancelled

By Hannah Neary, Local Democracy Reporter

Marks and Spencer has warned it will leave Oxford Street if plans for a huge revamp of its flagship store are slapped down.

The retailer wants to bulldoze its 100-year-old flagship store and replace it with a smaller shop with offices and a gym.

But the plans have sparked outrage among environmental campaigners and heritage groups, who argue it should be refurbished rather than knocked down.

M&S is facing SAVE Britain’s Heritage at a two-week inquiry in Westminster.

Russell Harris KC, who is representing M&S, told the inquiry that refurbishing the historic buildings would be “undeliverable and unfundable”.

He said there’s “no heritage reason” why the site shouldn’t be knocked down as it isn’t listed and doesn’t sit within Westminster’s conservation areas, BBC News reports. 

He added: “Any heritage harm will be significantly outweighed by the benefits.”

Mr Harris told the hearing the new set-up would create a “new flagship store of high architectural quality” to Oxford Street, which is currently “failing”.

He said M&S would “not be made to trade” in the current building and would not invest further in the site if its plans were refused, adding “no other retailer” would take over the site.

Matthew Fraser representing SAVE, told the hearing the company’s “threat” to leave the site was “not the constructive attitude of a retailer committed to the future of Oxford Street”.

He added: “The heritage impacts have been considerably underestimated by M&S and are not outweighed by the public benefits of the scheme.”

He also said that building a new store would release about 40,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, which is “the equivalent of driving a typical car 99 million miles, further than the distance to the sun”.

He added: “There is no structural or safety reason why they cannot be refurbished.”

M&S previously said the new building would use a quarter of the energy used by today’s store, boost footfall on Oxford Street and create over 2,000 jobs.

The company claims the Art Deco building needed to be revamped in response to changing consumer habits, made starker during the Covid pandemic, when more people opted for online shopping.

The supermarket giant has also claimed the store is unattractive and doesn’t offer a pleasant experience for customers or staff. The inquiry continues.

Pictured top: Plans for new Oxford Street M&S (Picture: Marks and Spencer)