M&S tries to address criticism of rebuilding plans for flagship store

Marks and Spencer has promised that the planned redevelopment of its flagship London store will involve improved public access and facilities, softening its position ahead of a planning inquiry that will start on October 25.

The retailer disclosed that the redevelopment of its Marble Arch store at the west end of Oxford Street will include a new “pocket park” known as St Michael’s Place, a nod to a clothing brand name used by M&S for decades.

It also plans to create new pedestrian walkways — including a “heritage arcade” — and rights of way to the side and rear of the current site.

“Our proposed development involves significant improvements to the public realm designed to fit in comfortably with the existing streetscape,” said M&S operations director Sacha Berendji.

But Save Britain’s Heritage, which opposes the redevelopment, described the latest M&S statement as “disingenuous” and questioned whether “a sunless ‘pocket park’ and an alleyway will be enough to convince Londoners to let them tear down this elegant and much-loved 1920s landmark”.

The retailer’s more recent tone provides a contrast to the statement it released in June, which described the government’s decision to refer the proposed redevelopment to a full inquiry as “political grandstanding”.

Plans to redevelop “The Arch” were first revealed in March last year. M&S wants to knock down the existing 160,000 square foot store and replace it with a modern mixed-used development with a smaller department store and several floors of office space.

The scheme has the backing of Westminster council and the Greater London Authority but is opposed by some heritage and environmental groups and architects.

Orchard House, one of three buildings that make up the existing store, is considered an elegant example of an interwar building.

Campaigners have also estimated that demolishing and rebuilding would release 40,000 tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere and have urged the retailer to retrofit the existing store instead.

M&S has said that would be impractical because of differing floor levels and the presence of asbestos in all three buildings. It has also said that the carbon released by reconstruction would be cancelled out by lower operating emissions after just 17 years of a 120-year design life.

Save our Heritage said the asbestos would need to be removed whether the building was refurbished or demolished, and that the immediate carbon emissions were a more urgent problem than future ones.

“We’re facing a climate emergency right now: we don’t have 17 years to waste.”