Ikea, the world’s biggest furniture retailer, opened its first inner London superstore in Greenwich, on Thursday 7 February.
Billed as the brand’s most sustainable UK store, Ikea Greenwich uses solar panels, rainwater harvesting and a geothermal heating system, in the Swedish flat-pack pioneer’s first new outlet in the capital in 14 years.
Unlike other Ikea blue box-style stores, the new branch also has large glass windows meaning shoppers can browse at least some of the collection in natural light.
Located in Millennium Way retail park between the historic town centre and The O2 on the Greenwich Peninsula, the new 344,000sq ft store is a five-minute bus journey from North Greenwich Tube station (Zone 2).
As part of its bid to become the first Ikea store in the UK to be awarded an ‘Outstanding’ sustainability rating by BREEAM, Ikea Greenwich is also encouraging environmentally friendly transport.
While parking has been and continues to be problematic at some Ikea outlets, with customers stuck in the Reading store car park for hours over the Easter bank holiday weekend last year, Ikea Greenwich is asking its customers to use public transport when visiting the new superstore.
The 500-strong workforce will travel to the store by sustainable means, with bike-buying schemes and season ticket loans available to all employees.
What are Ikea Greenwich opening hours?
- Monday to Friday, 10am to 10pm
- Saturday, 9am to 10pm
- Sunday, 11am to 5pm
Getting to Ikea Greenwich and parking
From directly outside the store, there are bus services every 1.5 minutes on weekdays (2.5 minutes on Sundays). Buses to North Greenwich station (Jubilee line) take 5-10 minutes.
The nearest train stations are Westcombe Park, an 11-minute walk away, and Charlton which is a 10-minute bus journey from the new store. Buses to Greenwich town centre (DLR/mainline trains) take 11 minutes.
There are 1,017 parking spaces directly opposite the store, but Ikea Greenwich is asking customers to leave cars at home in favour of more sustainable methods of transport.
How do I get things home from Ikea Greenwich?
There is 24-hour delivery for Greenwich borough residents and, for the first 10 weeks, home delivery costs £15 (usually £35) for locals within a 40-minute public transport journey of the store.
There are five electric vans for customers to hire from £15 an hour and Zedify electric bikes can deliver smaller goods within a few hours for between £5 and £7, depending on the size of box required. There will be a mini cab service, too, so getting a lift home with your items is an option.
What’s different about Ikea Greenwich?
One stand-out feature is the glass-walled pavilion overlooking the rooftop garden, with views over Canary Wharf and Greenwich Peninsula.
It’s a large, bookable space — at no cost for the time being — which can cater for 150 people or can be divided into smaller sections as necessary. Ikea Greenwich store manager Helen Aylett thinks it will be particularly popular with local groups, whether for product demonstrations, seminars or to meet and unwind over coffee.
It could also be used as workspace by freelancers. Other flexible working areas include the entrance café and the greenhouse café — the latter offers healthy food and is located in the warehouse on the lower-ground floor, which looks out over a new ecology park.
In a new move for the brand, Ikea Greenwich is hosting free and paid-for workshops on upcycling Ikea favourites already in your home. Held in the Learning Lab, a new space beside the Marketplace on the ground-floor, there will demonstrations and advice clinics as well as creative ‘pop in and play’ sessions.
Building on the idea that consumers are now at “peak stuff” (according to Steve Howard, Ikea’s former head of sustainability), Ikea Greenwich is planning to hold recycling workshops — as well as specific workshops for renters who need to be able to disassemble and reassemble their furniture when they move home.
“We want to be a force for change by having a lasting, positive impact on people and the planet,” said Ikea UK and Ireland’s country sustainability manager Hege Sæbjørnsen.
“The new Greenwich store will be a leading example for circular retail in London as we aim to inspire and enable people to live a more sustainable life at home and support them to reuse, refresh or recycle their products.”
Ikea stores opening in London and Paris
In addition to Ikea Greenwich and existing stores in Wembley, Tottenham and Croydon, Ikea opened a smaller planning studio in central London’s Tottenham Court Road in October 2018 and plans to open another in Bromley in south-east London later in spring 2019.
Ikea’s other openings include a full-range, city centre store without a self-service warehouse in Paris, due to open on May 6, which will be similar to that in Hamburg where shoppers can browse collections but then book home deliveries rather than attempt to get purchases home themselves.
Ikea Greenwich has a warehouse, so whether the ‘travel sustainably’ and ‘leave cars at home’ signs on display on roadsides near the store will impact the already congested roads around The 02 and the Blackwall Tunnel remains to be seen.
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