HMV Aims To Be The Top Dog On Oxford Street Once Again

U.K. based music and entertainment retailer HMV is to return to its former flagship store on London’s Oxford Street after a four-year absence.

It is expected to reopen towards the end of this year, in time for the crucial Christmas holiday season.

The century-old music shop chain shuttered its famous flagship store in 2019, after the business went into administration and was subsequently taken over by Sunrise Records.

The company said that its upcoming return to 363 Oxford Street was due to a “dramatic turnaround”, with HMV getting back into profit in 2022 and it added that the new store will have different branding and a new layout from the original.

There are no plans, however, to feature the famous Nipper The Dog sign synonymous with the original business.

The store was empty for an extended period after HMV vacated the site in 2019, and with its prominent location had become a totem of the wider demise of London’s most famous shopping thoroughfare.

Most recently — and controversially — the site had been taken over by one of the many American Candy stores which have proliferated along Oxford Street, despite a crackdown by the local Westminster Council.

HMV Store A London Icon

The HMV store was opened in 1921 by British composer Sir Edward Elgar and became a world-famous presence for the music giant. It also played host to a number of British bands over the years, including a rooftop gig by indie billboard-toppers Blur in 1995, plus the switching-on of the Christmas lights by the Spice Girls the following year.

In 2000, Beatles producer Sir George Martin unveiled a blue plaque at the store to mark its place in the band’s rise to fame.

During its recent revival, HMV has broadened its focus to include merchandise, music technology, more live music and in-store signings, amid falling sales of physical music and films on DVDs and CDs.

However, there has been a resurgence in retro-technology, with cassette sales in the U.S. and U.K. booming again and, improbably, rumors of something afoot at fallen video rental giant Blockbuster.

It also echoes the turnaround achieved by the bookselling group behind Barnes & Noble and Waterstones.

The Oxford Street store was one of 27 HMV shops to shutter in February 2019 when the music and entertainment retailer was rescued from collapse by Canadian music entrepreneur Doug Putman.

The group now has 120 outlets across the U.K., including its sub-brand Fopp, and Putman said that the upcoming Oxford Street reopening would represent “the launchpad for an exciting new era for HMV.”

HMV To Expand In Europe

HMV said it would introduce the new HMV Shop format to 24 new sites and 14 existing stores by the end of 2023, and would also open stores in Europe in 2023.

The Oxford Street site is expected to feature a range of pop culture merchandise, vinyl, film, TV and music technology, while it wall also host signings by music stars, plus stage performances from up-and-coming acts.

Putman said: “The expansion of our fan-focused pop culture offer is really working for us and the reopening of our flagship represents the culmination of a good few years of hard work.”

Councillr Geoff Barraclough, from Westminster City Council, which is the local authority for Oxford Street, said: “It’s fantastic to see this iconic brand back on Oxford Street, where it stood as a driver of music and pop culture in the capital for so long. It’s also particularly pleasing it is replacing one of the many U.S. candy stores. As a council we want to see the nation’s high street reinvigorated and home to brands like HMV.”