HMV to return to flagship Oxford Street store after four-year absence

theguardian.com:

HMV is to return to its former flagship store on London’s Oxford Street after a four-year absence. It is expected to reopen towards the end of this year, in time for Christmas.

The store was empty for an extended period after the music and entertainment company vacated the site in 2019, before most recently becoming home to one of the many American candy stores that popped up on Oxford Street during the pandemic.

The store was HMV’s very first, and was opened in 1921 by Sir Edward Elgar, the British composer. Since then it has played host to a number of British bands, including a rooftop gig by Blur in 1995 and the Spice Girls’ Christmas lights switch-on the following year.

In 2000, Sir George Martin, the Beatles producer, unveiled a blue plaque at the store to mark its place in the band’s rise to fame. In 1962, the Beatles’ newly appointed manager Brian Epstein made a copy of their demo tape on the premises, impressing the in-store engineer sufficiently to prompt a call to one of EMI’s music producers working in the upstairs offices.

However, the famous HMV sign, featuring Nipper the dog staring into a phonograph with the words “His Master’s Voice”, has been replaced by a Candy World sign. The music store’s sign – which was erected in 2013 but was a replica of the 1950s logo – was removed when the sweet store moved in and HMV’s latest sign will be installed instead when it returns.

Cllr Geoff Barraclough, from Westminster city council, which oversees London’s leading high street, said: “It’s fantastic to see this iconic brand back on Oxford Street, where it stood as a driver of music and pop culture in the capital for so long. It’s also particularly pleasing it is replacing one of the many US candy stores which sprang up