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APPLE HAS OPENED its third bricks– and–mortar Apple Store in central London, UK, on Brompton Road in the upmarket Knightsbridge neighborhood, less than a block from the famous Harrods department store.

Apple Brompton Road is Apple’s first entirely new UK store in eight years, and the first in the UK with an Apple Pickup area where customers can collect products ordered online.

The architects were Foster + Partners who, among many other projects, were behind the landmark “glass cube” Apple store on Union Square in San Francisco, Hearst Tower in New York, and Apple Park.

The frontage of the new London store features a series of arched windows four meters (13 feet) high. Inside, the unique curved timber ceiling rises to seven meters (nearly 23 feet) at its highest. Evoking the nearby Hyde Park, 12 towering Sicilian Ficus trees line a central entryway, mirroring the dimensions of the original Brompton Arcade, built 1903, which occupied the site. The terrazzo flooring is made of plant–based bio polymers, a first in any Apple retail location worldwide. Like all Apple facilities, the store is powered by 100% renewable energy.

Apple Brompton Road brings the total number of Apple stores in the UK to 39, the most in any country in the world after the US (271) and China (50).

Meanwhile, Apple has again delayed its first–ever retail store in India, which had been due to open in 2021. The opening of the flagship store in Mumbai has been postponed until 2023, following problems with supplies as India continues to recover from the consequences of the Covid pandemic.

The first Apple stores opened on May 19, 2001, in Tysons Corner VA and Glendale CA. Want to relive the experience? Developer Michael Steeber has created Apple Store Time Machine, a downloadable app that takes you on a virtual walk through four historic Apple stores including Tysons Corner on its opening day. You’ll find it at https://departmentmap.store/timemachine