An update on the plans for the Kingswood store has emerged
The new Marks and Spencer at Kingswood Retail Park is not expected to open until ‘Autumn/Winter 2027’. Plans to replace the existing Simply Food store with a full M&S emerged earlier in the year.
Hull City Council has approved plans which seek to give the city a full M&S store for the first time since the closure of the Whitefriargate store in 2019. The site of the city centre store which had been a stalwart of Hull’s retail scene for decades, is now one of a number currently vacant units down Whitefriargate.
The new store on Kingswood Retail Park will take up part of the unit which currently houses Matalan. The unit is to be divided into two with Matalan keeping one side, and M&S moving into the other.
Planning documents submitted to the council earlier in the year explained that “the existing premises is too large for Matalan’s business model requirements.” Similarly it is said that the current M&S food store at Kingswood is “too small to meet M&S’s business model requirements” – making it seem like a win-win for the two brands.
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An update on the plans has emerged after the Hull North and Cottingham MP, Dame Diana Johnson, wrote to Marks and Spencer asking for an expected timescale for when the new store will be opening. In her letter, Dame Diana wrote: “This would be a very welcome development for my constituency in terms of jobs, regeneration and an expanded retail offer.”
Dame Diana has shared the response she has received from M&S’s Head of External Affairs which states: “As it stands, we expect work to begin on site in late 2026 ahead of the store opening in Autumn/Winter 2027, coinciding with the closure of our existing food store at the retail park as colleagues transfer across to the new location.”