What would the late Rodney Fitch have made of IKEA’s debut on London’s Oxford Street? One of the stores the retail designer extraordinaire was best known for was surely Top Shop at Oxford Circus. Opening in 1994 in the Grade II listed building, it was a mecca for teenage girls and young women until it closed in 2021. The latest occupant of this site is hoping to attract pilgrims of a different stripe, but not that different. The Swedish furniture giant has been instrumental in changing our attitudes to home décor. Who buys with a view to family heirlooms these days? Furniture has long been treated as fashion. Perhaps not fast fashion, à la Top Shop and its online usurpers Shein and Temu, but seasonal none the less. This 5,800sqm IKEA City store has been much anticipated, not least because its opening was delayed by 18 months because of a leak. It’s the work of Building Design Partnership, who designed the similarly sized but not-quite-central-London Hammersmith branch in 2022. In design and branding terms, the excitement is two-pronged: how will IKEA do bijou, and will it “rescue” Oxford Street? IKEA’s new Oxford Street store On Tuesday this week, I dropped in to see for myself. At seven minutes past its opening time of 10am, there was no queue behind the velvet rope, nor was there one when I left at 11am. Has the hullaballoo died down in less than a week? The ground floor is not what you’d expect, because it’s the smallest of the three floors. One of IKEA’s famous FRAKTA shopping bags stands by the door, recreated in matte blue balloons. When balloons are employed by adults around shop doorways to signify celebration, my heart sinks and I retrace my steps pronto. But this was a bag, not an arch, and it’s on brand, so it kind of made sense. The main attraction is a low, cordoned-off stage in the entrance featuring a handful of different products, all labelled “new.” So far, so pleasing. To the right are some mobile shelving racks stacked to the gills with those candles in glasses and other necessities. Now we’re in familiar territory. But the real action is downstairs, where the room sets are laid out. All of a sudden, I was reminded of being in an airport duty free area. No natural light, and arrows and lines on the floor nudging you in certain directions. Actually, IKEA is trying something different here, getting real Londoners to dress their own “shop.” One such participant is queer cabaret performer, Carrot, who describes themself as camp, colourful and glamorous. In the language of soft furnishing, this translates as stripy pink cushions. Anyway, hats off to Carrot and the other local residents for distracting us from the regimented piles of tea-towels and rows of lamps. Because with 6,000 product lines on display, which is a lot to take in. Inside IKEA’s new Oxford Street store Is it just me, or does browsing homewares drain everyone of the will to live? Initial enthusiasm for looking at lots of nice stuff quickly dissolves. Around 3,500 products are available for immediate take-away. As this was an assignment, I tested this by buying two essential items, a bag of salted liquorice and a wheel of Knäckebröd (aka circular Ryvita). I am happy to report I could takeaway both, as they fitted handily in my cycle panniers. This retail therapy pulled me out of my consumer slump and allowed me to focus on the design details: exposed ceilings, yellow columns, and a long black and white table in the 130-seater restaurant area. BDP has said this is light-touch renovation. Meaning, of course, it’s all about the products. But, oh dear, it’s the abundance of products, many of them variations on each other, that were yet again getting me down. The experience simply confirmed that in certain circumstances, I don’t make a great customer. Enough about me. To answer those two earlier questions: bijou works here, because there’s enough room to stock a lot of smaller goods, which city centre pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport users can easily take away with them. Inside IKEA’s new Oxford Street store What about IKEA as the saviour of Oxford Street? The retailer itself seems to be in denial about the street’s sorry state – the Swedes see it as “one of the world’s most dynamic shopping streets,” according to the press release. Hmmm. Us Londoners know that we need a fresh reason to go to Oxford Street. At the moment, it feels like IKEA could be that reason. As for Fitch, like anyone in retail design, he would surely be thrilled that a big site that’s stood empty for three years is again in the business of peddling product and pulling in punters. And perhaps that’s the point of this IKEA, because what’s good for Oxford Street should be good for the design industry. Space NK is to open its biggest flagship next door later this year. That’s another piece of good news for retail design.