Marks & Spencer given permission to demolish flagship Oxford Street store

Marks & Spencer (M&S) will demolish its flagship Oxford Street store after three years of planning delays over the art deco building.

Plans to rejuvenate the building as a nine-storey retail space, cafe, gym and office will now go ahead after housing secretary Angela Rayner gave the go-ahead.

M&S says its new store will rank among the top 1 per cent of buildings in London on sustainable performance, will have a design life of 120 years and carbon payback within 11 years of construction.

After opposition from sustainability and heritage experts led to years of legal wrangling, former housing secretary Michael Gove stepped in to refuse the application in July 2023. .

M&S CEO Stuart Machin said: “I am delighted that, after three unnecessary years of delays, obfuscation and political posturing at its worst under the previous Government, our plans for Marble Arch – the only retail-led regeneration proposal on Oxford Street – have finally been approved.

“We can now get on with the job of helping to rejuvenate the UK’s premier shopping street through a flagship M&S store and office space which will support 2,000 jobs and act as a global standard-bearer for sustainability.

“At M&S, we share the Government’s ambition to breathe life back into our cities and towns and are pleased to see they are serious about getting Britain building and growing. We will now move as fast as we can.”

Orchard House, the building M&S will demolish, was constructed in the late 1920s on the Marble Arch end of Oxford Street. M&S opened their flagship store in the building in 1930, before applying to Westminster City council for permission to demolish it in 2021.

After Mr Gove rejected the plans in July 2021, a high court judge ruled that the government had made a series of flawed decisions in blocking the plans. On Thursday, Ms Rayner granted permission for the demolition and reconstruction of the building.