1640 GMT
London
Monday
21 June 2010
Editor © Muhammad Haque
KHOODEELAAR! TOLD OSBORNE only in the past few minutes that Crossrail scam was CRASS! Here is confirmation again that even some of the most arduous backers of Big Business are let down by CRASSrail scammers! The point being made here about the Bond Street fiasco is this: that at no stage of the Crossrail scam's promotional history of the past 20 years was it treated as a responsibly audited and examined matter. Hence the tag CRASS that we, khoodeelaar! based on the facts. And crassly costly wastefully does the CRASSrail scam carry on being peddled...
Give my regards to Bond Street
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Bond Street is in the news today, with retailers angry because plans for a Crossrail station there are in jeopardy. It would be the ultimate insult for retailers to be asked to fund the hugely expensive new line through an additional business rates levy, only for it not to serve the retail heart of the West End.
However, it’s not surprising that the scheme is being looked at again. Last week’s cuts - including government funding for the Sheffield Retail Quarter development - showed that the coalition is going to be ruthless when it comes to wielding the axe. More of which we’re likely to see in tomorrow’s budget, I suspect.
I was on Bond Street at the end of last week to have a look round the revamped Fenwick store. It seems to have been being rebuilt for decades, and isn’t entirely finished, but the results are pleasing and all that work has created about 20% more space, which you can really feel when you’re in the store. It definitely gives the product space to shine.
With the exception of the basement, which houses menswear and gifts, the whole store has been made over and while the results of all the work aren’t particularly radical, in most of the store at least, they reinforce Fenwick as a destination store and there are some very interesting touches, particularly when it comes to lighting. There are also a lot of very unusual chairs, offering varying degrees of comfort, dotted around.
While the rest of the store remains quite traditional in its look, the big surprise is the young fashion top floor, with exposed pipework, which looks really quite funky and is definitely a bold departure for Fenwick. There were quite a few mothers shopping with grown up daughters which - rightly or wrongly - I always perceive as Fenwick’s customer profile. A new restaurant by renowned Evening Standard food critic Fay Maschler isn’t finished yet but when it is I’m sure will be a massive help in driving footfall to the store.
Fenwick is an interesting beast, with the owning family prefering to stay out of the limelight and each of the stores having a very distinct personality and its own buyers. The Bond Street revamp has definitely taken the store on, and reinforced its point of difference as a calm but understatedly stylish oasis compared to its rival West End department stores.
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