By Leah Montebello
Efforts to save the iconic Marks & Spencer building on Oxford Street were reignited this week, with a number of high profile authors and architects getting behind a crowdfunding scheme to stop the demolition.
Author of Notes from a Small Island Bill Bryson and award-winning architect Steve Hopkins slammed plans for the site’s demolition, backing SAVE Britain’s Heritage’s campaign to raise the £20,000 required for legal fees to fight the planned demolition.
M&S hopes to rebuild the Marble Arch store, which it says has “asbestos throughout,” to create a new 10-storey building, with office spaces.
A public inquiry in October will assess the merits and detriments of the scheme, as ministers have deemed the plan to be of more than local importance.
The campaigners plan to argue that the building can be retro-fitted rather than completely razed.
The building was built in 1929 and has been deemed a key fixture of the famous shopping high street.
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