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[title]Once upon a time, there was more to Oxford Street than Urban Outfitters, HMV and American candy stores. And we’re not just talking about Big Topshop (RIP, we’re still not over it). Starting out as a Roman road, and even having gallows installed up until the eighteenth century, the shopping epicentre has a long and fascinating history.
These nostalgic photos tell the story of 214 Oxford Street. You’ll probably recognise the plot opposite Oxford Circus tube station as the once majestic Topshop and soon to be a massive new IKEA. But did you know that before 214 Oxford Street was transformed into a shopping paradise for teenage girls, it used to be an Edwardian department store? And before that, it was an even glitzier crystal palace?
The Crystal Palace Bazaar, built and designed in 1858 by architect Owen Jones, was modelled on the OG Crystal Palace built for the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park. The extravagant building was a sight to behold and had a vault 11 metres high, with many ‘decorative flourishes’ that included wrought iron ribs and star-shaped glass in the ceiling.
‘There was something on this broader plot in the eighteenth century – a stable yard and rows of smallish buildings around its edges – when the street junction was squared off before John Nash’s improvements of the Regency period,’ says architectural historian Lucy Denton.
‘But definitely not as dazzling as what came afterwards here in the 1850s when Owen Jones, virtuoso architect and designer with a connoisseur’s understanding of colour, light, and use of intricate patterns, assembled his Crystal Palace Bazaar at this prime spot on what is now the north-east quadrant of Oxford Circus.
‘Described in The Builder at its opening in 1858 as having “considerable merit” in all its decorative flourishes and ironwork and glass structure, this new emporium was no doubt in aesthetic homage to The Crystal Palace where Jones had just years previously been appointed to oversee its painted schemes when it was reassembled at Sydenham Hill post-Great Exhibition of 1851.’
The great glass and iron structure was demolished in 1905. After the Crystal Palace Bazaar came the Peter Robinson department store, a high-end clothing emporium, which set up shop inside a newly built classical-style building designed by Henry Tanner.
‘Jones’s glittering store set the tone for later built incarnations, which came in 1912 when Sir Henry Tanner designed what is a monumental tour de force in sculptural classical style for the Peter Robinson chain, originally founded by a Yorkshire draper who was savvy enough to understand the seductive appeal of the sale of high-quality clothing,’ says Denton.
‘Consuming the site of Jones’s glitzy arcade, and constructed as one of four edifices at each of the ‘corners’ developed by Tanner, it was extended in 1924, but it represents first-class architecture of the commercial age at a site with formidable retailing provenance.’
Cut to 1975, and 214 Oxford Street was known as ‘Top Shop and Peter Robinson’.
By 1994, Top Shop and Peter Robinson had morphed into the flagship Topshop, AKA Big Topshop, that we all knew and loved.
Big Topshop closed its doors forever in 2021 and Oxford Street was worse for it. However, Londoner’s spirits were lifted after hearing mumblings of a new megastore taking over the legendary 214 Oxford Street. IKEA was coming to help resurrect the once-distinguished shopping destination from its slashed-price grave. Since then, Londoners have been patiently waiting for the Swedish furniture shop to arrive in central London, which is slated to finally open in autumn 2024.
‘This more than 100-year-old landmark on the north-east corner of Oxford Circus, which went from bazaar to department store, has been known by a variety of names by different generations of Londoners,’ says Peter Jelkeby, chief executive and chief sustainability officer, IKEA UK. ‘We can’t wait to open our doors, building on this incredible heritage to continue creating a better everyday life for the many people.’