Re: Re: ILAC centre

18/4/2009

Oh my god, so River Island has like, finally, like opened on Henry Street, yeah!

This is loike, so fantaaaastic. Gingham shirts, skinny jeans and hair straighteners at the ready guys! (diamante earring optional)

Finally this vacant unit has been filled (and more importantly all of that nasty advertising hoarding removed) and a new focus given to the junction of the three streets here. The Henry Street/Mary Street axis is now holding up well, with big (if universal) attractions distributed evenly along its length. All we need is that vertical band of crassness to the right removed and we’ll be getting somewhere. One suspects we shall be waiting.

The fit-out is of a good standard, typical of River Island (and miles above that of H&M), with a cavernous ground floor and a more modestly scaled first floor. The demands of what is now the theatre of retail has resulted in some clever uses of materials, notably lining the stairwell.

Sadly, however, this new facade to the Ilac remains the cheap, incoherent and unimaginative paper-thin commercial veil it always was. I cannot see it lasting even as long as the original Ilac did.