IKEA UK has confirmed that the opening of its Oxford Street city store will be delayed until spring 2025, as an extensive renovation project across all seven floors of the iconic Grade II listed building has encountered a flood risk in the basement.
Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group, the largest IKEA retailer, says that significant progress has been made throughout the project,which involves creating a home for the new IKEA Oxford Street city store and developing four floors of office space.
Ingka says it 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 under way”.
Peter van der Poel, MD, Ingka Investments, says: “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 enabled the giant Frakta bag hoarding to be removed this month.
Peter Jelkeby, CEO and chief sustainability officer, IKEA UK, adds: “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 three floors, with a total area of 82,000 sqft (7600 sqm). Customers will be able to explore around 6000 different IKEA products, with about half of them 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.
Photo courtesy IKEA UK