HMV to Leave 363 Oxford Street in March 2027 as Landlord Seeks to Double the Rent

HMV will close its flagship store at 363 Oxford Street in March 2027, little more than three years after it reopened the address with considerable fanfare. The chain announced the decision on 12 October 2026, and the reason it gave has nothing to do with how many records it is selling: the landlord has proposed doubling the rent, and the building needs substantial renovation work. Taken together, HMV says, that makes the shop commercially unviable.

It is an unusual sort of closure announcement. Retail exits are normally accompanied by falling footfall and shrinking sales. This one arrives in the middle of a growth run.

A hundred-year address

363 Oxford Street is not just another unit on a busy shopping street. HMV first occupied the site in 1921 as a gramophone brand, which makes it the company's founding address and one of the most storied music-retail locations in Britain. Blur played a rooftop gig there in 1995. The store closed in 2019 when the chain fell into administration — it was rescued the same year by the Canadian retailer Doug Putman, who still owns it — and it stayed shut for four years.

The reopening at the end of 2023 was treated as a statement of intent. Music Week reports that it took a seven-figure investment and produced a 10,500 sq ft shop, which it describes as the largest dedicated entertainment retail site in London.

Managing director Phil Halliday framed the decision in terms of sentiment running up against arithmetic. The store is a special one, he said — the place where the company began a century ago, and bringing it back in 2023 was a significant moment in HMV's recent history. But, as he put it to Music Week, however much a location means to the business, it still has to make commercial sense. He also called it frustrating that the site had been made commercially unviable.

The numbers behind the exit

What makes the closure notable is the trading picture around it. As reported by What Hi-Fi?, HMV recorded a 15% rise in sales across the first nine months of 2026. Combined revenue from its shops and online operation is expected to reach roughly $320 million (£240 million) this year, up from about $280 million (£212 million) in 2025. The chain operates more than 100 UK shops.

In other words, a physical-media retailer that is growing is walking away from its best-known address because of the cost of occupying it. The notes of regret in Halliday's statements make more sense in that light: this is a property decision, not a retreat from the high street.

HMV has not disclosed what the current or proposed rent is, beyond saying the landlord wants to double it, and has not named the landlord.

What happens next

The company says it is looking for an alternative site in the West End and intends to maintain a significant presence in London. Staff at 363 Oxford Street are to be redeployed into other London stores and head office roles, and HMV hopes some will be able to move to a new site opening in 2027. Neither the location nor the opening date of that replacement store has been announced, and the company has not said how many employees are affected.

Until March 2027, the Oxford Street shop continues to trade.

The vinyl backdrop

The trade's reading of the news has been consistent: this is about property economics on one of the most expensive shopping streets in Europe, not about appetite for records and discs. Drew Hill, managing director of the distributor Proper, told Music Week that the closure is clearly unrelated to the continuing demand for physical music, pointing to UK vinyl sales at an 18-year high. Music Week reports a year-to-date rise in vinyl of close to 14%.

That context matters for anyone trying to read the shape of music retail from headlines alone. A flagship closing on Oxford Street is a vivid image, and it is easy to file it alongside the 2019 administration as another chapter in the slow disappearance of the record shop. The underlying figures point elsewhere. Vinyl is at its highest level in nearly two decades, HMV's own revenue is climbing, and the chain's stated plan is to replace the store rather than retire from the area.

What the episode does illustrate is how exposed even a healthy specialist retailer is to the economics of a prestige address. A 10,500 sq ft shop on Oxford Street carries a rent bill that scales with the street's tourist footfall rather than with the margins on CDs, records, turntables and film. When a landlord proposes to double that bill — and the building needs significant work on top — the calculation can turn against a business that is otherwise in good shape. The company that occupied the site for a century, left it in administration, spent seven figures bringing it back and is now leaving again inside three years is a case study in exactly that tension.

Coverage of the announcement has been corroborated by ITV News London and ianVisits.

Dollar figures in this article are converted from pounds sterling at the European Central Bank reference rate of 14 October 2026 and are approximate.