{"id":625314,"date":"2025-12-11T01:52:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T01:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/625314\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T01:52:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T01:52:25","slug":"legendary-1960s-west-end-building-to-be-transformed-into-massive-shopping-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/625314\/","title":{"rendered":"Legendary 1960s West End Building To Be Transformed Into Massive Shopping Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Plans to transform the former home of BHS\u00a0and the London College of Fashion (LCF) in Oxford Circus have been given the green light.\u00a0First announced in August, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/london\/news\/the-iconic-oxford-circus-building-that-is-getting-a-massive-makeover-082025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proposals to turn\u00a033 Cavendish Square into a massive office block and shopping centre<\/a>\u00a0are officially going ahead.<\/p>\n<p>Westminster City Council has unanimously granted planning permission to developers Berkeley Estate Asset Management (BEAM) and architects Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) to renovate the historic building that is just round the corner for Oxford Circus tube station.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The building was occupied by the high street stalwart BHS from 1961 until 2016 when the company went bust. UAL\u2019s London College of Fashion campus was also housed there until 2023 when it relocated to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/london\/things-to-do\/stratford-area-guide\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stratford<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to the council\u2019s decision a group of campaigners had launched a petition to save the building that opened in the early \u201860s, calling it \u2018a key example of mid-20th-century modernist educational design\u2019. The group, mainly made up of LCF alumni, said they were \u2018calling on the developers to reconsider and preserve, restore or integrate this iconic West End site\u2019. However, the full renovation will still go ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"185c2790-6073-d902-9451-954821f2763b\" class=\"photo lazy inline\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"lazy-embed\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765417943_321_image.webp.webp\" alt=\"33 Cavendish Square \" data-caption=\"\" data-credit=\"Image: Kiasm\" data-width-class=\"\" data-image-id=\"106352800\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\nImage: Kiasm&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Under the new proposals\u00a033 Cavendish Square will become a mixed-use office, cultural and retail building, and have its fa\u00e7ade remodelled. It will be home to\u00a075,000 square metres of offices, with 3,500 square metres of retail and cultural space. It will also have an auditorium, that developers said could host\u00a0TED talks, product launches and fashion shows. More than half of the existing building will be retained and given an eco-friendly facelift, becoming all-electric and net zero. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>John Bushell, principal at KPF said in a statement: \u2018This is a thoroughly modern building, designed to resonate with the best of the large buildings along Oxford Street, responding to their composition, scale and materiality. We carried out extensive analysis of the existing buildings to create a scheme that restores a coherent urban form and is an exemplary guardian of embodied carbon.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Works are expected to begin in 2029, with an estimated completion date of 2033.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"01ecaa65-d214-1b6d-af56-ce27dd7fa824\" class=\"photo lazy inline\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"lazy-embed\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1765417945_61_image.webp.webp\" alt=\"33 Cavendish Square \" data-caption=\"\" data-credit=\"Image: Kiasm\" data-width-class=\"\" data-image-id=\"106352801\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\nImage: Kiasm&#13;<\/p>\n<p><strong>A huge new M&amp;S store in west London <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/london\/news\/a-huge-new-m-s-store-in-west-london-has-opened-this-week-121025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">has opened this week<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>A new independent record shop <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/london\/news\/a-new-independent-record-shop-is-opening-in-north-london-this-week-120925\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">is opening in north London this week<\/a>.\u00a0<br \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke \u2013 from news and reviews to events and trends. Just\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/whatsapp.com\/channel\/0029VabxG0jK0IBqoptkHH3i\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-modified-href=\"https:\/\/whatsapp.com\/channel\/0029VabxG0jK0IBqoptkHH3i\" data-modified-><strong>follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel<\/strong><\/a><strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Stay in the loop: sign up to our\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/london\/newsletter?cid=uk~editorial~acquisition~newsletter~contentlink\" data-modified-href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/london\/newsletter?cid=uk~editorial~acquisition~newsletter~contentlink\" data-modified- target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>free Time Out London newsletter<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u00a0for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plans to transform the former home of BHS\u00a0and the London College of Fashion (LCF) in Oxford Circus have&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,57569,393,4884,257,57570,246,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-625314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-categories-shopping","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-news-shopping-style","14":"tag-shopping","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115698437883483539","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}