Apple transforms ‘Cashmere Alley’ into global brand central

Cashmere Alley was the one-time nickname for London’s Regent Street, thanks to the dull array of Highland knitwear shops, tacky souvenir shops and two-a-penny high street chains. Since the arrival of the Apple Shop five years ago, however, one of the West End’s main shopping arteries has been transformed into a desirable destination for top global brands.

Apple’s first shop outside the US is now the most profitable store in London, with sales of around £60 million a year. It’s in-store theatre has hosted gigs by such superstars as REM and Duffy and American retailers seeking European locations now make Regent Street their first port of call. (Lifestyle brand Anthropologie, which set up shop towards Piccadilly Circus last month, being the most recent case in point).

The head of Regent Street’s Crown Estate, David Shaw, said a conscious decision was made to tempt America’s top brands when a swathe of leases came up for reneweal in 2002. Along with Anthropolgie, fashion retailers Banana Republic and Guess have joined Britain’s first Ferrari shop. Dutch fashion chain Sting will soon be taking over the former Tower Records building on the corner of Piccadilly.

An investment of £750 million has been made to improve the street, with retail space increasing by almost 25 per cent, and there is only one 2,000 sq ft space currently empty, despite a 25 per cent rise in rents compared with 0-10 per cent in other West End locations.