It’s hard to tell what The Crown Estate has really achieved at Piccadilly Circus.
Yes, it has persuaded leaseholder Criterion to settle its dispute out of court, and yes, it has repelled the spectre – as it sees it – of TK Maxx opening up and ruining the circus.
But The Crown’s high-brow stance against TK Maxx was meant to be a stand against tackiness in the area.
So what exactly it will achieve by letting a 23,000 sq ft souvenir shop open up in the building is not clear.
Surely if there’s one thing Piccadilly Circus doesn’t need it’s another souvenir shop, however tasteful it might be.
TK Maxx might not be Louis Vuitton, but it is at least a decent fashion retail brand. If The Crown is going to restore some of the shine of Piccadilly Circus, it needs to start by bringing more fashion brands trading there so that others will begin to see it as more than just a messy end to Regent Street and a doorway to Leicester Square.
The Queen’s estate-manager has some excellent ideas for the area, and, in fairness, is no doubt already looking beyond Cool Britannia to a more respectable future occupier.
But in the short-term, and with Mike Ashley’s latest eyesore on the former Burberry site on Haymarket, a budget sports-goods store adding to the cheap feel around Piccadilly Circus, The Crown seems to be achieving the opposite of its intentions.
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