More Details Emerge About New Marks and Spencer Store
Three exits and a heritage style facade revealed in plans
The hoardings covering Chiswick's Marks and Spencer as work progresses
July 6, 2025
While customers will have to wait at least until November to find out exactly what the new Marks and Spencer (M&S) in Chiswick will look like, there are some details emerging as the project progresses.
The retailer has submitted two planning applications related to the refurbishment (P/2025/1973 and P/2025/1974) which provide clues to the layout and the operation of the extended store.
Drawings submitted with the application show the store as being named Marks and Spencer Food as opposed to M&S Foodhall. It is not clear whether this is just illustrative for the planning documents or if it indicates that the Chiswick store will be one of the first to carry new corporate branding.
The main entrance and exit to the store will be in a similar location but broader and with automatic glazed sliding doors. There will also be a new exit from the planned bakery which will be located in the former Up and Running premises at 242 Chiswick High Road. It is believed this will also be the location of the café with designs suggesting there will be a counter selling bread, pastry and coffees that you will have to walk through the store to reach. We asked Marks and Spencer for more details on the design and operation of the café, but they have not yet responded.
The plans show that it is intended to reopen the entrance at the rear of the store on Windmill Passage. This was closed during the pandemic and remained so until the premises was shut for refurbishment. Glazed sliding doors will be used here also with the stated intent of ‘activating the frontage’ in this area.
As well as the refurbishment of all the units including the former Mint Velvet, Up and Running and Poundland stores, the plans show of new signage and shopfront to unify the buildings at ground floor level. At the front of the store there will be redesigned pilasters with glazed green slip bricks and new fixed dark green awnings to be installed between all pilasters as well as a heritage style fascia with concealed lighting. ‘Bus stop’ style signs will be placed at each end of the front of the store.
The existing M&S store currently comprises a double-width unit, number 236. The store is to expand into adjacent units, numbers. 244, 242 and 230 and amalgamate these into one single store with shopfront.
The construction date of the original store is not known but it started to appear on maps in 1866. Number 236 operated as a ‘penny bazaar’ until 1920 when M&S took it over. It continued to grow and enlarged the store with the addition of number. 238, completely redeveloping the site in 1931 for what is now the Art Deco portion of the store.
Number 232 Chiswick High Road was originally a pub called The Emperor, first appearing in a street directory in 1888. It closed around 1961 and moved to another location in the area while the premises was incorporated into M&S.
Number 230 Chiswick High Road, the former Poundland store, dates from after the 1930s and was built on an existing building.
Given the different origins and age of these buildings, the M&S expansion is likely to be a complicated and challenging problems and, it is understood that asbestos will need to be safely removed from the buildings.
M&S previously indicated that the store would relaunch in November. It has not responded to our question on whether that timetable is still likely to be met.
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