LONDON – Marks & Spencer has completed the final phase of its flagship redevelopment at the Pantheon building on Oxford Street, establishing a new operational prototype for its clothing, home, and beauty divisions.
The project is a central component of the retailer’s wider strategy to modernize its physical estate and recapture market share in the UK’s competitive clothing and home sectors through a data-driven, curated shopping experience, at a time when policymakers are under pressure to revive the fortunes of the traditional high street.
The Pantheon store now encompasses four floors and nearly 100,000 square feet. The most recent phase of the development saw the reopening of the top two floors, which now house the menswear, kidswear, lingerie, and home collections, effectively turning the site into the benchmark for future full-line formats.
As a constituent of the London Stock Exchange, the company is utilizing the site as a research and development hub to test layout, pricing architecture, and product curation before scaling these formats across its broader network of UK and international stores.
The new layout introduces a bespoke suiting service, allowing customers to order made-to-measure suits with a three-week lead time, supported by in-store stylists and digital fitting tools. The home section has been integrated with the Tom Kerridge range, including specialized cast iron and sauté pans, positioning the store more firmly in the premium cookware and hosting market.
“In 2019, we built the blueprint to modernise our food business, with a new food format designed to capture the soul of a fresh market. We started at Clapham St John’s Road and have renewed 160 of our food stores since then, including here at Pantheon. Now we’re taking that same approach into fashion, home and beauty. Pantheon on Oxford Street, where we’ve had a store since 1938, is our first full-line flagship and our research and development store for fashion, home and beauty. It’s where we’re testing how we make shopping our ranges easier, more curated and more inspiring, from clearer product moments to how the store looks and feels overall. We’ve still got a lot to do modernising our estate, with 25 years of catching up to do. But Pantheon is a big step forward.”
The redevelopment was executed in stages to maintain partial operational capacity and protect Oxford Street footfall. The lower ground foodhall opened in August 2025, introducing 500 new products, including whipped feta and chocolate pistachio dips aimed at younger, urban shoppers. The womenswear and beauty sections followed in January 2026, with expanded changing facilities and dedicated zones for third-party brands.
The strategic pivot coincides with a measured recovery in the retailer’s brand perception after a decade of underperformance in fashion. Over the past year, the company has recorded a 30 per cent increase in female customers, while jewellery sales at the Pantheon location specifically rose by 150 per cent, suggesting early traction for the more curated, occasion-led offer.
The company is further aligning its corporate strategy with high-fashion positioning. On July 6, 2026, it was confirmed that the retailer will debut at London Fashion Week in September 2026, presenting “see now, buy now” collections for both men and women, with stock flowing directly from the runway into the Pantheon store and online channels.
The Pantheon model is the first in a wider capital expenditure program focused on the London market and beyond, intended to meet evolving planning and energy-efficiency expectations for large retail sites. The current financial year’s expansion and renewal pipeline includes:
- London: Six store renewals and four new store openings, with Oxford Street positioned as the flagship template.
- UK National: Two new full-line stores and 18 new food stores, primarily in retail parks and edge-of-town locations.
- Estate Adjustments: Four store extensions and multiple renewals to consolidate older, underperforming sites into fewer, larger destinations.
This investment occurs as the Department for Business and Trade continues to monitor high-street viability and the shift toward experiential retail in major urban centers, working alongside local authorities on business rates reform, city-centre regeneration, and the implementation of the government’s wider high street strategy.
The company has now transitioned the Pantheon site to full operational status as it prepares for the September fashion collection launch, positioning the store as both an Oxford Street anchor and a live test bed for the next phase of its UK retail transformation.
Keep reading
