M&S loses battle to demolish and rebuild Oxford St flagship

Marks & Spencer’s flagship store on London’s Oxford Street cannot be demolished and rebuilt as the company wanted: this is the final decision announced yesterday by Michael Gove, the UK’s Housing and Communities Secretary. The retailer slammed the verdict as “a short-sighted act of self-sabotage” and threatened to leave London’s main shopping street altogether.

M&S had planned to demolish the original 1930s Art Deco store and build a new ten-storey mixed-use asset that would combine a shop with offices, a café and a gym. Westminster council had approved the plans and the Mayor of London had not objected, but strong opposition by heritage and environmental campaigners led Gove to launch an in-depth inquiry into the plans last year.

Announcing his decision yesterday in a 110-page report, the Secretary of State said he disagreed with inspectors and had decided to refuse permission for several reasons. First, the public benefits of the proposal do not outweigh the harm to nearby period landmarks, such as the Selfridges department store next door.

The second reason is the carbon footprint and climate impact of the scheme. Demolishing the store would “fail to support the transition to a low carbon future, and would overall fail to encourage the reuse of existing resources, including the conversion of existing buildings”, states the report.

The campaign group Save Britain’s Heritage hailed the decision as a “massive positive step” and said that the construction of the new building would have released nearly 40,000 tonnes of CO₂ or “the equivalent of driving a typical car 99 million miles, further than the distance to the sun”.

Stuart Machin, CEO, M&S, accused the government of ignoring experts, who had praised the new asset’s sustainable credentials. He said there are “17 approved or proceeding demolitions in Westminster and four on Oxford Street alone, making it unfathomable why our proposal to redevelop an aged and labyrinthian site that has twice been denied listed status has been singled out for refusal”.

Westminster City Council, which had originally approved the plans, yesterday sided with the government, saying that “the Council’s position is to encourage landowners to refurbish buildings, not demolish them”, and asked M&S to come back with a revised scheme.

The Council is also considering a revamp of Oxford Street, pedestrianising part of it to make it more attractive to shoppers. Many shops on the streets, including big department stores like Debenhams and House of Fraser, have closed down.