Never let it be said that Apple doesn’t source some gorgeous buildings for its retail stores!
According to a new report, Apple is said to have agreed terms to take over an historic Grade II listed building in the U.K.’s second biggest city, Birmingham.
And, despite it not being announced yet, the news is already generating excitement among fellow local retailers.
News of the new Birmingham site follows one day after we reported that Apple’s flagship London Apple Store is getting a major overhaul. The Birmingham store is one of the city’s most iconic buildings, and was first constructed in 1879 as a bank.
Currently it houses a six-storey Waterstones chain book store, although Apple plans to scrap much of the present interior to return the building to its original banking hall grandeur with a design “suitable for a prestige flagship retail store.”
Architectural plans specify Apple’s intention to remove a staircase and mezzanine balcony added in the 1990s. “Retail trading will be confined to the ground and lower ground floor level, to impose on the public’s experience of the space as originally intended when used as a banking hall,” say the proposed plans.
Apple may shutter a nearby 4,000 square-foot store it is currently occupying in favor of the new 20,000 square-foot site.
No word on when all this will be completed (or even officially announced), but it’s already being described as a massive boon for the city.
“For us, Apple trading from there is really massive because it is the right kind of customer,” the owner of a local jewellery store told the Birmingham Mail.
“I have taken the shop next door and we are doubling in size on the strength of Apple taking Waterstones,” he added.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
One response to “U.K.’s second biggest city is set for a stunning new Apple Store”
Can’t come soon enough, the current Birmingham bullring Apple Store is way too small and you often find people having to que outside so it’s about time a alternative was found. It’s very good news that this great building will get a new lease of life right across the road from the the refurbed New Street and Grand Central with the extended metro just outside.