Apple to Open Covent Garden Retail Store in London on August 7th

[MacRumors]

Apple has officially announced the grand opening of its new retail store in the Covent Garden district of London, with the store set to open to the public on Saturday, August 7th at 10:00 AM. The store appears to be Apple's largest by total square footage, and will inhabit a restored historic building in the district's popular shopping area.

The London Evening Standard reports that the store will encompass a total of four floors, although a considerable portion of the space is reported to be set aside for meeting rooms and offices for Apple corporate staff.

Plans for the store obtained by the Evening Standard show it will cover four floors, although only two are likely to be accesible to the public. It features a glass roof over a courtyard originally built so horses could make deliveries easily to the building, which dates from 1877. Customers will enter through an eight-bay arcade marked by 20-foot stone arches and lit with restored gas lamps.

The firm has been painstakingly restoring the building for months, even removing a set of brick arches piece-by-piece, photographing and numbering them before rebuilding them onto a floor lowered by just four inches.

Located only about a mile from Apple's existing Regent Street flagship store that has been named the most profitable retail store in London on a per-square-foot basis, the new Covent Garden location is expected to ease some of the heavy traffic and long waits experienced by customers at the Regent Street store.

Article Link: Apple to Open Covent Garden Retail Store in London on August 7th

 

[jmitch150]

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[Spanky Deluxe]

Cool! Now if only they would open one in Canary Wharf!

 

[Jaro65]

Covent Garden is a wonderful area. This store is bound to do very well.

 

[Battlefield Fan]

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disagree. this just goes to show that apple IS building larger iconic stores. Plus the amount of work gone into restoring this building sounds intense. On top of that its going to be apple's largest store yet.

 

[RetepNamenots]

Great stuff. I've endured many long waits at the Regent Street shop.

 

[niuniu]

Cool! Now if only they would open one in Canary Wharf!

Would do well down Canary Wharf. Covent Garden for me has always been a hippy spot

 

[314631]

I wonder if they used a magical restoration process?

 

[GregorBehr]

Cool, just in time for my holiday. I mean really, what is nicer, looking at a bunch of old buildings or a nice new shiny Apple store?

 

[Xenious]

Is the Covent Garden tube station still elevator only?

 

[TheBritishBloke]

London doesn't need yet another apple store. We need more up north.

 

[Queso]

Excellent stuff. Even more proof for those that doubt of Apple's growth here in the UK. This will also have the added benefit of permitting those that actually want to buy stuff to get near the demo kit at Regent St.

London doesn't need yet another apple store. We need more up north.

Two in the Manchester area, which as everyone knows is the cultural and geographic centre of northern England. What more do you want?

 

[abrooks]

London doesn't need yet another apple store. We need more up north.

They're coming to the north. Leeds is next up.

 

[iDrinkKoolAid]

Great stuff. I've endured many long waits at the Regent Street shop.

True true. As big as it is, the Regent Street location has been on the verge of bursting for a while now. The Genius Bar waiting times have been quite long.

The location of the Covent Garden store is great too. Right by the tube station.

 

[ModestForumName]

....... then why did u post it here...

Figured this would be an flame-free place to ask and have multiple opinions (because let's face it, not many people get to look at the self-started threads)

All that on one app? Is that what you mean?

No something to take notes with in class(biochem major = lots of notes and drawings) that won't slow me down by typing. just using handwriting/stylus. .transferring it to PDF is a plus.

 

[iDrinkKoolAid]

Is the Covent Garden tube station still elevator only?

I thought there were also very long windy stairs. Or am I thinking of another station?

 

[T-Will]

I wonder if they used a magical restoration process?

Yeah, they used Time Machine for Apple Store©.

 

[Mintin8]

Covent garden is an amazing location! This store is going to be awesome.

 

[aliebel]

This renews my suspicions that the next iLife etc. recently rumored to be launched on the 7th of August is bunk. Looks like the source got it right Apple would be doing something that day but just not updating software. Not like it was likely they'd announce anything like that over the weekend.

Looks like it's going to be another great store.

 

[Queso]

Is the Covent Garden tube station still elevator only?

I thought there were also very long windy stairs. Or am I thinking of another station?

It is lift-only, but the area is also serviced by the much larger Leicester Square tube station which is only a short walk away, and Holborn's quite close too. Also Charing Cross mainline isn't far away for those coming up from Kent or South East London.

And of course Covent Garden is a boutique shopping hub and entertainment destination, so lot's of people go there anyway. Makes sense to put the store there, but I think it'll attract even more email-checkers than Regent St. does.

 

[hugodrax]

More RDF offgassing. I wonder how long before an ozone layer hole forms over london/ny.

 

[antic]

London doesn't need yet another apple store. We need more up north.

I totally agree. Whats wrong with having one in Leeds

 

[barberio]

Would do well down Canary Wharf. Covent Garden for me has always been a hippy spot

How long has it been since you were there last, 1976? Today, it's a Tourist shopping spot, with a few tourist attractions like the Transport Museum. Huge amounts of foot traffic.

(Heads up to people visiting the shop, the Transport Museum is well worth price of admission.)

 

[Queso]

More RDF offgassing. I wonder how long before an ozone layer hole forms over london/ny.

The one created by the New Romatics in the early 80s hasn't closed again yet. All that hairspray tends to stick in the atmosphere.

 

[antic]

Excellent stuff. Even more proof for those that doubt of Apple's growth here in the UK. This will also have the added benefit of permitting those that actually want to buy stuff to get near the demo kit at Regent St.

Two in the Manchester area, which as everyone knows is the cultural and geographic centre of northern England. What more do you want?

The only thing that you have of any worth in Manchester is Old Trafford, and you won't find much culture there. Will you!