Hopes for a revival in Oxford Street’s fortunes got another boost today as leisure experience developer Pocket Planet unveiled plans for Britain’s biggest indoor miniature world.
The 30,000 sq ft attraction will take up 50 metres of frontage of Oxford Street in a former New Look store site between Bond Street and Marble Arch. There are hopes for one million visitors a year when it is fully open in 2025.
Pocket Planet COO said: “Over the last five years we’ve looked at all the world’s leading miniature attractions, such as Small Worlds in Tokyo and Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg. They’re all great, but Pocket Planet will go an extra level.
“The team we’ve put together draws on the best of breed in leisure interior design and some of the greatest modellers in the world.”
The attraction will have moving planes, trains, vehicles, and boats, plus a cafe and shop.
The move is the latest sign of the experience economy plugging gaps in the in the high street left behind by a string of retailers going bust or cutting back on their physical footprint. Up the road on Oxford Street, crazy golf business Swingers opened a course in the building formerly occupied by BHS in 2018, while across on Tottenham Court Road, a Monopoly Lifesize game experience was opened in 2021, replacing a Paperchase store.
In July, Westminster City Council said it hoped to ‘reclaim’ Oxford Street from a swarm of ‘American Candy’ stores with a new scheme to attract small businesses with discounts on business rates.
