East Ham high street plays host to thriving value chains, with Primark taking the prize for best-looking shop on the street.

East Ham high street plays host to thriving value chains, with Primark taking the prize for best-looking shop on the street.

As part of my quest to explore as many different high streets as possible, I recently found myself in the London district of East Ham.

Much of what you see on East Ham’s high street is gloomily familiar – the usual clusters of payday lenders, bookies and unappealing discount shops – but it’s certainly not the no man’s land portrayed in a national press article five years ago. There are few empty premises. Thriving value chains Poundland and Wilkinson have replaced Woolworths and M&S. And colourful independent boutiques and grocers cater well for the local population.

Then, among all that, there’s Primark. Glistening white against the blue sky, the building – all crisp lines after being redeveloped as the chain’s first ‘green store’ in 2010 – feels as if it’s been dropped in from another planet.

Just like the new Primark stores in Edinburgh and Newcastle, East Ham’s branch is the best-looking shop in the street by a country mile.

So how has Primark become such an impressive investor in our high streets? After all, it wasn’t always like that. The old East Ham store, by all accounts, was rather like the cramped and dowdy Derby Primark I remember from my childhood.

Fast-forward to now, and Primark proves that successful value fashion and great-looking stores aren’t mutually exclusive – they’re mutually inclusive.

Today’s spacious, sparkling Primark branches create a wow factor that showcases the product and makes it easy for customers to shop – a far cry from the old Primark image of clothes on the floor and queues of stressed shoppers.

Landlords who were once snooty about having Primark in their schemes now jockey to attract a retailer seen as a guaranteed footfall driver.

Of course, as the collapse of Internaçionale reminds us, gleaming stores are no use if the product, pricing and locations are wrong – but for the sake of high streets such as East Ham’s, we should celebrate Primark’s ability to keep getting it right.

  • Graham Soult, retail consultant, CannyInsights.com