Hotfoots it to Mayfair - Mayfair Times

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26 retail The future of the West End A report last month by industry magazine Drapers revealed that Oxford Street outstrips its international counterparts in Paris, Milan, New York and Tokyo when it comes to high-street fashion. In a poll of 50,000 fashion professionals, nine out of ten thought the street was best for edginess, affordability, choice, designer collaborations and speed of translating catwalk designs to the shop floor. Over the past ten years, Oxford Street has seen a massive transformation, with the arrival of international flagship brands such as Nike, Gap and Uniqlo, and a £5 million makeover of Oxford Circus, which culminated last year in the launch of London’s first diagonal crossing. The crossing, inspired by Shibuya crossing in Tokyo, was part of a master plan by the New West End Company – Europe’s largest Business Improvement District (BID) – when it was set up ten years ago to drive forward London’s retail heartland. The company worked alongside West End property owners to facilitate the project and has worked closely with Westminster City Council, the Mayor of London and Transport THE NEW WEST END COMPANY’S AMBITIOUS 2020 VISION INCLUDES REJUVENATING THE EAST END OF OXFORD STREET, REDUCING TRAFFIC AND BOOSTING SPACE FOR PEDESTRIANS BY 50 PER CENT. SELMA DAY REPORTS for London on measures to improve pedestrian space and reduce traffic on Oxford Street and Regent Street. Other achievements include the regeneration of Marble Arch; a crime-intelligence partnership resulting in a 61 per cent reduction in smash-and-grab burglaries; introducing clearer signage; providing a team of Red Caps to assist shoppers; and a large-scale street-cleaning operation. In 2005, the company launched the UK’s first VIP day – a traffic-free event, which has seen retailers increase their sales by £500 million in five years. “I think there’s been a noticeable impact on the streets of the West End both in terms of operations and marketing messages,” says Richard Dickinson, CEO of the New West End Company. “All that would never have happened without the New West End Company, because nobody was looking at it at that micro level. We go out and are on the case day in, day out – our Red Caps are constantly reporting things that go wrong [to Westminster City Council].” Having played a role in generating a retail spend of over £5.6 billion a year in the West End over the past decade, the “The retail heartland is coming out of recession and there is a lot of investment everywhere” Richard Dickinson, CEO of the New West End Company BOND STREET WILL SEE MORE HIGH-PROFILE EVENTS AND CATWALK SHOWS New West End Company recently announced its 2020 Vision – its ambitious plan for the next ten years. Revitalising the east end of Oxford Street is high on the agenda and has already been given a kick-start with the recent announcement that Primark is to open an 85,000 sq ft store opposite the new Crossrail Tottenham Court Road tube station. A joint venture between Land Securities and Frogmore Real Estate Partners, the development – Europe’s largest retail deal in four years – is due to be completed by June next year. Along with the Crossrail development, it will give a considerable uplift to this end of Oxford Street, which is often considered to be the poor relation. “These are encouraging signs,” says Dickinson. “Development is coming back and London is pretty buoyant, as you can see with the Park House development – some 100,000 sq ft of retail space right in the heart of Mayfair [at the west end of Oxford Street]. The retail heartland is coming out of recession and there is a lot of investment everywhere. The rents that are being achieved now in Oxford Street and Bond Street are fantastic – they are at record levels.” A recent report by Cushman & Wakefield revealing that New Bond Street is now the most expensive retail location in Europe (see News, page 6) is an indication that the luxury market is still booming and is one the New West End Company is keen to take advantage of. This summer saw the launch of London Luxury, a grouping together of the West End’s luxury quarter (Bond Street, Mount Street, Jermyn Street and Savile Row). The aim is to target high net-worth tourists from around the world – a market spending £1.1 billion a year – by offering bespoke tours and super-exclusive shop-and-stay experiences. “We’re also looking at an improvement programme for Bond Street,” says Dickinson. “On an international basis, the inside of the shops are fantastic, but the outside isn’t competitive with places like Milan. Clearly the southern end – Old Bond Street, with its high-end jewellers – is fine, but as you come further north, we need a decent retail structure for that area and we need the property owners on side for that. “It’s about lifting the whole ambience of the street. Can we
28 retail brand it better? Can we get better gateways? Can we get better quality paving and value parking? Can we get fashion shows going on on a regular basis in the street? Can we get more flexibility on advertising?” Of course, all that comes at a price and, at a time of savage public-spending cuts, where is the money going to come from? “We’ve got to find different ways of funding this,” says Dickinson. “We can’t rely on council handouts because there won’t be many of those. We’ve had encouraging signs from the property owners that they do want to see change – it’s in their interests ultimately. We’ve got some innovative ideas for allowing the private sector more of a contribution and having more say in what goes on. “And while the banks may still have problems, the criteria for the West End is different. We’re hoping to build a small visitor pavilion between John Lewis and House of Fraser and the bankers are falling over themselves to lend us the money just because of where it is. That’s what they’re all investing in – brand presence – so it’s not just about the transaction of selling, it’s about being on the street. It’s about London being a world city and a retail centre and the importance of that to the economy.” Reducing surface traffic is also a key priority for the New West End Company – another ambitious plan considering that the two new Crossrail stations on Oxford Street will increase capacity by 30 per cent. “Regent Street and Oxford Street are really suffering and the general health of the West End is damaged by traffic,” says Dickinson. “We’ve already taken some steps and TfL have been very good – they’ve taken out the number 15 bus, so that no longer goes to Oxford Street. That’s probably about 15 buses an hour that we’ve got rid of. So what we need is more of that. And Boris has helped to a certain extent by bringing the bikes in. It’s a great idea and a contribution to making the streets a bit less motorised. But you need a change of mindset – the transport planners have started with the traffic, but actually if you turn it round and think about pedestrians, then traffic is incidental.” The New West End Company plans to introduce “shopping hours” by 2015, with 40 per cent less traffic between 10am and 4pm daily, and to provide 50 per cent more space for pedestrians A view from Westminster Councillor Brian Connell, cabinet member for business, enterprise and skills, on: THE 2020 VISION “The economic vitality of the West End is something that we are absolutely committed to and we endorse most of what the New West End Company aspires to achieve. There will be times when they will want things that perhaps we can’t agree on, but generally we’re on the same side and we want the same thing: a vibrant, economically driven West End.” PROMOTING THE WEST END “Although businesses have generally had a rough time, the West End has done a lot better than it might have done – partly because of the work the BIDs (Business Improvement Districts) have done. I chair the West End Marketing Alliance, which brings together lots of BIDs including the New West End Company, businesses, property owners and trade associations who represent things like the theatres, major retailers and the tourist industry. And that’s all about promoting the West End.” CROSSRAIL “We are supportive of Crossrail, but there is no doubt, as you can see on Oxford Street at the moment, that it’s hugely disruptive. You can’t do something as big as Crossrail without it having a negative impact in the short term – and we’re the guys who have to find diversion routes and deal with all the nitty gritty. We’d like to put up a sign saying: “The West End is still open for business.” It’s during projects like this that our role is to remind central government how important the West End is. If that is hit by any punitive measure – it could be business rates or other taxes central government might impose – we need to step forward and say what the impact would be.” THE PROPOSED DIAGONAL PEDESTRIAN CROSSING AT TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD THE OLYMPICS “We want to make sure that the physical infrastructure of the West End looks as great as it can, particularly in the run-up to the Olympics. In Mayfair you’ve got some top-notch hotels, and during the Olympics a lot of people are going to be staying there, so one of the key priorities is transport. Boris is making sure people can get to and from the Olympic stadium easily (special lanes will be introduced on key roads to transport athletes and officials to Olympic events). I also want to make sure that as many people from Westminster see the job opportunities that exist on their doorstep.” ENVIRONMENT “I think we do a pretty good job of keeping the greenery, things like trees and hanging baskets. We will see more of the stuff that Prince Charles is talking about now [the Prince opened the grounds of Clarence House last month to promote sustainability]. In fact, we’ve just given planning permission for some solar panels on Clarence House – so if he can do it, the rest of us can. I think we’ll have more buildings becoming greener in time, but hopefully in a way that protects their heritage. We’ve also got an innovative partnership with Grosvenor to invest in the public realm.” PLANNING AND LAND USE “In terms of planning and land use, it’s about finding the right balance so that residents have their amenities protected. The challenge is moderating the impact of business and not losing what makes the West End special – we’ve got a residential community right in the heart of a world city, but that’s what makes it unique and we want to protect that. And that’s why we’re a long-term bet.”
Page 1: CHARLOTTE DELLAL Hotfoots it to May
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Page 8 and 9: 14 film AHEAD OF BEING THE HOST HOT
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Page 23: 44 restaurant directory To appear i
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