> Marks and Spencer will knock down its flagship art deco store on London’s Oxford Street after it received approval from UK housing secretary and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner. The retailer said it had secured the hard-fought approval more than three years after it first submitted the application to redevelop the Marble Arch store. M&S chief executive Stuart Machin said on Thursday he was delighted with the outcome after “unnecessary years of delays, obfuscation and political posturing at its worst, under the previous government”.
> Rayner’s decision to reverse the stance of her Conservative predecessor, Michael Gove, on one of the UK’s most high-profile planning controversies is a signal that she plans to use her powers to clear barriers and favour development. Claire Fallows, planning partner at law firm Charles Russell Speechlys, said: “The decision has always been more about political messaging…a green light from Rayner is a strong political move.” M&S had been awaiting a decision since March when it won a legal challenge against the Conservative government, which had blocked it from demolishing the store in the renowned shopping district to make way for a new store, restaurants, offices and a gym.
> In a rare bit of praise from a retailer since the UK Budget, Machin added: “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.” The plans have angered architectural and environmental campaigners, who have argued that refurbishing the store would be better for the environment than tearing it down. On Thursday Henrietta Billings, director SAVE Britain’s Heritage, said “the government has chosen the easy option — business as usual — when it had a real chance to show leadership and ambition on this urgent issue”.
> As housing secretary, Rayner has considerable discretion to review and decide planning cases, which she has already used to wave through housing developments that Gove sought to block, and launch reviews of big infrastructure projects including controversial data centres. Alistair Watson, UK head of planning and environment at law firm Taylor Wessing, said the decision “is as straightforward as it comes”. “This is a major development scheme which has a variety of economic, social and environmental benefits, all of which were backed up with expert evidence in a full public inquiry,” he added.
Why couldn’t it be refurbished?
Finally
About time, this dragged on far too long
How depressing
It’s a shame this country doesn’t value its built heritage. Looks like you don’t even have to suspiciously set a building on fire to be able to demolish it.
Everything inside will still be ugly as sin and made of polyester, a thousand shades of skin colour on one unwearable bra, and m&s food the only saving grace. Ick
That whole area could do with a bit of a refurb it’s a bit of a dump down that end of Oxford Street.
Perfect, London needs another glassy office block with Joe & The juice at the bottom.
All hail the great Rayner! Pretty clear that she’d have done the opposite of what her Conservative predecessor did.
Extremely shameful, the building looks great and completely destroying it will pollute the environment.
The government is a joke.
A 1930s Art Deco building – left to fall apart and then destroyed. To be replaced by a cheap and ugly building. Not a single house will be built. I weep for London
Fantastic news. This should never have been dragged out like this, and the sooner they crack on with demolishing that decrepit store the better. A win for London.
Disappointing for a purely selfish reason, it’s my nearest branch! It’ll take years to get this completed..
Sad
This is just wrong. How can the government push for a greener construction industry and not push for the reuse of a building where the structure itself is sound. This should be a cut and carve job not a new build. It would be so much less carbon, so much less loss of heritage and most importantly would set the tone for asset owners that they need to actually maintain their buildings if they can’t afford a retrofit.
I’ve been round a few similar buildings including a HofF and they are appalling behind the scenes. They are a rabbit warren of 100 yo storage rooms and bodges Mech/Elec installes altered and adjusted 100 times. They typically have very low fresh air, are massively costly to run with systems breaking down all the time – it’s like running a fleet of 100 yo cars and delivery lorries, because they “look nice”
The building is cogent but it’s nothing special. I doubt anyone stops in stunned silence when they see the facade
Massive shame. Unless the building is falling down then it should stay.. they are beautiful buildings filled with history
She’s a big fat clown I hope her bed is never comfortable
It’s a rubbish building function wise. This is good news. In an ideal world they could beautiful art deco buildings that are functional and efficient but they can’t.
Great another buttplug building
Can’t they at least keep the Art Deco facade and gut the rest of the building?
The NIMBYs will block them from knocking down a concrete block of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
23 comments
> Marks and Spencer will knock down its flagship art deco store on London’s Oxford Street after it received approval from UK housing secretary and deputy prime minister Angela Rayner. The retailer said it had secured the hard-fought approval more than three years after it first submitted the application to redevelop the Marble Arch store. M&S chief executive Stuart Machin said on Thursday he was delighted with the outcome after “unnecessary years of delays, obfuscation and political posturing at its worst, under the previous government”.
> Rayner’s decision to reverse the stance of her Conservative predecessor, Michael Gove, on one of the UK’s most high-profile planning controversies is a signal that she plans to use her powers to clear barriers and favour development. Claire Fallows, planning partner at law firm Charles Russell Speechlys, said: “The decision has always been more about political messaging…a green light from Rayner is a strong political move.” M&S had been awaiting a decision since March when it won a legal challenge against the Conservative government, which had blocked it from demolishing the store in the renowned shopping district to make way for a new store, restaurants, offices and a gym.
> In a rare bit of praise from a retailer since the UK Budget, Machin added: “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.” The plans have angered architectural and environmental campaigners, who have argued that refurbishing the store would be better for the environment than tearing it down. On Thursday Henrietta Billings, director SAVE Britain’s Heritage, said “the government has chosen the easy option — business as usual — when it had a real chance to show leadership and ambition on this urgent issue”.
> As housing secretary, Rayner has considerable discretion to review and decide planning cases, which she has already used to wave through housing developments that Gove sought to block, and launch reviews of big infrastructure projects including controversial data centres. Alistair Watson, UK head of planning and environment at law firm Taylor Wessing, said the decision “is as straightforward as it comes”. “This is a major development scheme which has a variety of economic, social and environmental benefits, all of which were backed up with expert evidence in a full public inquiry,” he added.
Why couldn’t it be refurbished?
Finally
About time, this dragged on far too long
How depressing
It’s a shame this country doesn’t value its built heritage. Looks like you don’t even have to suspiciously set a building on fire to be able to demolish it.
Everything inside will still be ugly as sin and made of polyester, a thousand shades of skin colour on one unwearable bra, and m&s food the only saving grace. Ick
That whole area could do with a bit of a refurb it’s a bit of a dump down that end of Oxford Street.
Perfect, London needs another glassy office block with Joe & The juice at the bottom.
All hail the great Rayner! Pretty clear that she’d have done the opposite of what her Conservative predecessor did.
Extremely shameful, the building looks great and completely destroying it will pollute the environment.
The government is a joke.
A 1930s Art Deco building – left to fall apart and then destroyed. To be replaced by a cheap and ugly building. Not a single house will be built. I weep for London
Fantastic news. This should never have been dragged out like this, and the sooner they crack on with demolishing that decrepit store the better. A win for London.
Disappointing for a purely selfish reason, it’s my nearest branch! It’ll take years to get this completed..
Sad
This is just wrong. How can the government push for a greener construction industry and not push for the reuse of a building where the structure itself is sound. This should be a cut and carve job not a new build. It would be so much less carbon, so much less loss of heritage and most importantly would set the tone for asset owners that they need to actually maintain their buildings if they can’t afford a retrofit.
I’ve been round a few similar buildings including a HofF and they are appalling behind the scenes. They are a rabbit warren of 100 yo storage rooms and bodges Mech/Elec installes altered and adjusted 100 times. They typically have very low fresh air, are massively costly to run with systems breaking down all the time – it’s like running a fleet of 100 yo cars and delivery lorries, because they “look nice”
The building is cogent but it’s nothing special. I doubt anyone stops in stunned silence when they see the facade
Massive shame. Unless the building is falling down then it should stay.. they are beautiful buildings filled with history
She’s a big fat clown I hope her bed is never comfortable
It’s a rubbish building function wise. This is good news. In an ideal world they could beautiful art deco buildings that are functional and efficient but they can’t.
Great another buttplug building
Can’t they at least keep the Art Deco facade and gut the rest of the building?
The NIMBYs will block them from knocking down a concrete block of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
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