Marks & Spencer to reuse lights at Oxford Street flagship
Retail giant Marks & Spencer looks set to remove and reuse the luminaires at its flagship store on London’s Oxford Street after it received Government permission to demolish and rebuild it.
The company says that 95 per cent of the existing building materials will be recovered, recycled or reused.
The art deco building is a landmark on Oxford Street. Pic: Google Earth
This looks certain to include many of the thousands of linear luminaires and spotlights on the shop floor. It’s not clear yet if a remanufacturing specialist will be employed to upgrade the light sources to the latest LED and control technology. It’s also not certain the the lights will be reused in the same location.
Demolition is now a certain after housing secretary Angela Rayner ended a four-year planning row by granting the firm permission to demolish the 94-year-old Art Deco building.
The redevelopment, which will see the landmark art deco building knocked down and replaced with a new building designed by UK architecture practice Pilbrow & Partners, was first submitted for planning approval in 2021 and approved by Westminster City Council.
It was later ‘called in’ for review by then housing secretary Michael Gove, who eventually refused planning permission in July 2023.
Marks & Spencer, whose marketing makes much of its environmental credentials, says the redevelopment “will be amongst the top 1 per cent of new buildings in London on sustainable performance”.
The company has previously experimented with sustainable lighting. In recent years its store have featured bespoke luminaires 3D printed from shredded recycled material.
The fittings were produced by Signify, which describes the move is a major step towards the so-called ‘circular economy’ in which waste is eliminated and materials are continually re-used.
The light fittings for the Marks & Spencer store roll-out – believed to run into thousands – are made at Signify’s first 3D printing factory at the town of Maarheeze in the Netherlands.
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Pic: Alamy
