Regent Street, Strand, Buckingham Palace Road and O2 at ICON are planning to reopen their doors after being forced to close due to coronavirus

Fine tea, coffee and hot chocolate specialists Whittard of Chelsea is set to reopen another 5 of its London stores this Friday, including Regent Street, Buckingham Palace Road and Strand. All Whittard stores were forced to close on Saturday 21^st March, following government advice on COVID-19. This is the fourth phase of stores planning to open as part of the brand’s gradual approach to reopening all 47 UK stores.

Upon reopening stores, Whittard will be doing things a little differently to ensure staff and customers feel safe and comfortable while making the shopping experience as easy as possible. Some of the measures that have been put in place are:

• Distance markers to guide customers around the store
• Frequent cleaning and plenty of hand sanitiser
• A smaller number of customers will be welcomed in at one time with a one-way system to follow
• Only card payments will be accepted, with an increased contactless limit of £45 per transaction
• Staff will be asking customers to wear a face mask before entering the store, and have face masks on-hand for customers

As of Friday, all 5 stores will be open with minimum trading hours of 10:00–17:00, Monday–Saturday, please check your local store for Sunday opening hours.

Simon Jones, Whittard of Chelsea’s Head of Retail, said of the reopening:

“It will be a pleasure to welcome back yet more of our amazing store teams as part of the next phased reopening for the business on Friday. We obtained many invaluable learnings from the initial stores, where we have been absolutely delighted with the customer and colleague response to the changes we have made in line with government guidelines.”