Ikea is step closer to first Southeast London store

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Mar 20, 2017

Ikea’s opening in Southeast London has moved a step closer with the Swedish furnishings giant having submitted its detailed plans to the local council in Greenwich.

The company has been planning a megastore on the site of a former ultra-sustainable Sainsbury’s supermarket for some time but the site has been empty since June 2015.

The company had previously received outline planning permission for what would be its first Southeast London store and also its closest store to the City of London and the Docklands business and residential area.

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Now it has been revealed that the Bugsby’s way site will get a store of 340,000 sq ft offering the full Ikea product range. It should open in summer 2018 and will have around 500 staff members.

Like the Sainsbury’s store it will replace, sustainability will be a key feature with an “excellent” BREEAM rating (the system that measures its environmental impact). The site will include a landscaped garden, bicycle parking spaces, electric car charging points and the store will use sustainable materials.

Despite this, there has been an active anti-Ikea group in the local area that has campaigned on the basis of the traffic congestion the new store would cause. The main roads around the site are among the busiest in London and are regularly gridlocked. Campaigners say that while the site is an existing retail destination, the allure of Ikea would draw in significantly more traffic from outside of the area.