Time Out nears deal with Crown Estate for first London food hall
Media and hospitality giant Time Out is in talks with the Crown Estate to open its long-awaited first food hall in London.
The Time Out Market hall would open in the Crown Estate’s properties at 10 Piccadilly and 55 Regent Street, W1. Some 27,932 sq ft of space across the basement, ground and first floors is subject to a pending change-of-use application from retail to food hall lodged with Westminster council.
The building fronts onto Piccadilly Circus and is described as “unique and iconic” in planning documents. It was originally designed as one of London’s first multi-storey department stores for Swan & Edgar in the 1920s. It was later home to Tower Records and then a Virgin Megastore.
Media and hospitality giant Time Out is in talks with the Crown Estate to open its long-awaited first food hall in London.
The Time Out Market hall would open in the Crown Estate’s properties at 10 Piccadilly and 55 Regent Street, W1. Some 27,932 sq ft of space across the basement, ground and first floors is subject to a pending change-of-use application from retail to food hall lodged with Westminster council.
The building fronts onto Piccadilly Circus and is described as “unique and iconic” in planning documents. It was originally designed as one of London’s first multi-storey department stores for Swan & Edgar in the 1920s. It was later home to Tower Records and then a Virgin Megastore.
If the deal happens it will fulfil Time Out’s long-running ambition to have a food market in London. In 2016, the company submitted plans for a 20,000 sq ft food hall in a Grade II-listed building at 106 Commercial Road, E1, near Spitalfields Market, but Tower Hamlets Council denied the application.
After losing its appeal in 2018, Time Out pivoted, signing a prelet deal with London & Continental Railways to open a 32,500 sq ft food hall in the Waterloo Station development, though this plan was shelved in March 2021 owing to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2022, Time Out reapplied at 106 Commercial Road, overcoming prior issues and receiving an approval recommendation. But after repeated delays to a council decision, Time Out withdrew that proposal.
A spokesperson for Time Out declined to comment on the talks with the Crown Estate but said the company continues “to expand to cities around the world”. The Crown Estate declined to comment.
Time Out opened its first market in Lisbon in 2014. Other sites include New York, Boston, Montreal, Chicago, Dubai, Cape Town, Porto and Barcelona.
The number of food halls open or planned to open across the UK has more than doubled over the past seven years to 42 – more than in France, Germany and Italy combined, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s recent Food Halls of Europe report.
