Guildford Luxury UK Shopping Capital

Luxury Shopping
With Christmas nearly upon us it’s time to head to Guildford, the “luxury shopping capital of the UK”.
Guildford, as with most town centres, is gearing up for its busiest time of year; the countdown has begun to Christmas.
The difference being that this year if you head to this beautiful and historic county town of Surrey, to stock up on stocking fillers and treat your loved ones to gorgeous gifts, you can be safe in the knowledge that you will be shopping in the “luxury shopping capital of the UK”.
A recent study by Experian, the information services group, based on demographics, consumer spending, household income and the penetration of online retail, has ranked Guildford number one on a “luxury hotspots” chart outside central London.
The research concluded that Guildford attracted an annual retail spend of around £900m, and just under 7,000 households had an income of £100,000 to £150,000; the city has a population of 75,000.
Alistair Scott, Head of PR & Marketing from House of Fraser comments: “This Christmas, House of Fraser Guildford’s luxury gifting offer is stronger than ever. With a brand offer as far reaching as Anglomania to Aspinal, Biba to Mulberry, House of Fraser continually strives to meet the demand for luxury brands from customers in the Guildford catchment.”
Much of Guildford’s luxury shopping is focused around its iconic cobbled high street, retailers include House of Fraser, Hugo Boss, LK Bennett, Links of London, and Jo Malone, with the parallel North Street seen a little like the poor relation, however this will hopefully be changing in the near future.
Guildford Borough Council has great plans afoot to redevelop a 2.5 ha area adjacent to North Street, with their developer partner Land Securities.
Proposals for the site include opening a branch of John Lewis, creating a 500 space underground car park, a new town square and closing part of North Street to traffic.
Land Securities will also work closely with M&G Real Estate, who earlier this year acquired ownership of the Friary Centre and a number of shops and land within the development site.
Late night shopping in Guildford will run to 8pm every Thursday evening until the 19th of December.
With that, I shall leave you to grab your bag, wrap up (but not too much, as the shops always have the heating up way too high), and start that Christmas shopping.
As Bo Derek said “Whoever said that money can’t buy happiness, simply didn’t know where to go shopping,” but, luckily we do ... Guildford!
For more information please see the following websites:
guildford.gov.uk
houseoffraser.co.uk
yvonne-arnaud.co.uk
internationalexcellence.co.uk