The retailer remains fully committed to opening as the sensitive and sustainable renovation mega-project at 214 Oxford Street continues
IKEA UK has confirmed its Oxford Street city store will now be opening in spring 2025, as an extensive renovation project across all seven floors of the iconic Grade II listed building continues.
Significant progress has been made throughout the project – led by Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group, the largest IKEA retailer – which involves creating a home for the new IKEA Oxford Street city store and developing four floors of office space. Ingka Investments is striving to achieve the highest levels of sustainable certification by BREEAM, while ensuring optimal preservation of the building and keeping neighbouring stores open for trading.
A renovation of this scale and significance is hugely complex, with some unexpected conditions revealed as the renovation programme has progressed. A need for unforeseen additional work on the lower of the two basement levels was recently discovered to control water ingress, which is now underway.
Peter van der Poel, Managing Director, Ingka Investments, said: “IKEA Oxford Street is a one-of-a-kind project, involving the sensitive and sustainable upgrade of a Grade II listed building that is over a hundred years old. Following the discovery of an unforeseen water ingress issue, we’re now taking vital steps to mitigate long-term flood risk, and to protect and future-proof this historic building for many years to come.”
In recent months, further progress has moved the project closer to the finish line, including: the removal of fossil fuel gas-fired boilers and replacing them with energy-efficient air source heat pumps, the complete replacement of all wiring, plumbing and fire protection throughout the building, conversion of the upper floors into office space, the installation of secondary glazing and the cleaning of the building’s iconic fascia, which has enabled the giant FRAKTA bag hoarding to be removed as of this month.
Peter Jelkeby, CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer, IKEA UK, added: “We’ve been overwhelmed by the interest and excitement generated around our Oxford Street opening. The historic nature of the building makes its careful renovation more complex, but we want to ensure Londoners that we’re just as excited to open the store as they are to visit it. We look forward to doing so in spring 2025 and contributing to a positive future for London’s most renowned shopping district.”
IKEA Oxford Street spans across three floors, with a total area of 82,000 square feet (7,600 square meters). Customers will be able to explore around 6,000 different IKEA products, from BILLY bookcases to POKAL glasses, with about half of the products available for immediate take away. Larger furniture items can be delivered directly to customers’ homes or be picked up from IKEA collection points being rolled out across the capital.
Image credit: David Parry – PA Media.
