Outlets of the wizarding persuasion have been conjured up all over central London in recent times — but from this autumn, Oxford Street will have an official Harry Potter store.
Billed as "the UK’s only official Harry Potter retail destination alongside the King's Cross shop" (although surely the shop in Watford is official too?) the 21,000 sq ft, two-floor store at 134–140 Oxford Street will be a "fully immersive wizarding emporium" with various interactive bells and whistles, photo ops — and more stiffly-priced merch than you can wave a wand at.
Despite being almost three decades old — not to mention the more recent spouting of anti-trans opinion from its creator JK Rowling — the Harry Potter franchise is going nowhere. Or rather, everywhere: there are already magical megastores everywhere from Chicago to Tokyo, alongside King's Cross with its Platform 9 ¾ shop, which continues to send punters gleefully hurtling towards a brick wall every few seconds. Meanwhile, the new Warner Bros-produced TV adaptation is due early in 2027.
Just round the corner from Oxford Street, at the Palace Theatre, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is about to rejig into a one-part play, following 10 years on the West End. No doubt the new superstore will be mopping up the theatregoers, casting its spendy spell with products that have prices set to Stupefy.
