An edge-of-town store measuring 100,000 sq ft (9,290 sq m) is hardly remarkable these days, but when it is the biggest store that a retailer has opened in a large city for a decade, it’s worth taking a look at.

The Marks & Spencer branch that opened at the start of last month in Colliers Wood, south London, could more correctly be tagged edge-of-Surrey, as it is in that part of the city where postcodes switch from metropolitan to county.

This is a two-floor branch, with the upper level being a mezzanine. It shares a shopping scheme with a Sainsbury’s store and, as well as a good-looking new-style Autograph shop at the front, it also has a large food section with a deli bar. The latter takes shoppers out of the environs of a suburban shopping centre in Surrey and places them in the centre of the city, or at least that’s how it feels. With its electric-blue neon sign, high chrome bar stools and rectangular white fabric lampshades overhead, this is a little slice of the West End.

Marks & Spencer is also increasingly playing with its graphics. For those standing on one of the mezzanine’s extremes, there is the chance to stare over a balcony towards the entrance, where black-and-white fashion graphics have been used to add atmosphere to a potentially sterile piece of shed retailing.

With broad walkways and sightlines across a very large space on both floors, this is a shop that defies labelling.

Click here to see more of the shop at the Stores Images Gallery

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