First Ever GAMES WORKSHOP Store Is Being Demolished

The first ever Games Workshop store is to be demolished. Located in Hammersmith, in west London, the store was opened in April 1978. It's not currently a Games Workshop store; the building is occupied by a translation business. When it was opened, nearly 40 years ago, people lined up in the street. Games Workshop was created in 1975 in Nottingham by John Peake, Ian Livingstone, and Steve Jackson, all of whom had left the company by the 1990s. It is the publisher of games like Warhammer, and Warhammer 40K. No word yet on whether it's being demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass.
The first ever Games Workshop store is to be demolished. Located in Hammersmith, in west London, the store was opened in April 1978. It's not currently a Games Workshop store; the building is occupied by a translation business. When it was opened, nearly 40 years ago, people lined up in the street. Games Workshop was created in 1975 in Nottingham by John Peake, Ian Livingstone, and Steve Jackson, all of whom had left the company by the 1990s. It is the publisher of games like Warhammer, and Warhammer 40K. No word yet on whether it's being demolished to make way for a new hyperspace bypass.
Actually, the current tenants of the building indicate that it is being demolished to make way for residential flats.


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Opening Day in 1978

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The building today
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Morrus

Morrus is the owner of EN World and EN Publishing, creator of the ENnies, creator of the What's OLD is NEW (WOIN), Simply6, and Awfully Cheerful Engine game systems, publisher of Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, and co-host of the weekly Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk podcast. He has been a game publisher and RPG community administrator for over 20 years, and has been reporting on TTRPG and D&D news for over two decades. He is also on the socials.
D

doctorhook

Legend
Looks like the site has seen better days. Mind you, I'm look at it from a Canadian urban-infill perspective, where hardly anything is more than a century old, so I won't assume my assessment is necessarily valid for the UK.
 


Ruin Explorer

Ruin Explorer

Legend
Morrus said:
Thus the demolishment, presumably.
Click to expand...

Morrus, let's be real, THIS. IS. LONDON!

Anything which can legally be turned into a block of extremely overpriced "luxury" flats (which inevitably requires demolishment) and sold to overseas real estate investors (who have no intention of even bothering to rent them out, in many cases, as property values appreciate enough to make it not worth it, even post-slow-down), will be turned into a block of extremely overpriced "luxury" flats. Doesn't matter if it's in good nick or totally dilapidated.

I mean, this is a city where our mayor was boasting (BOASTING!) that one new block of luxury flats was guaranteeing that at least 60% of the flats would be sold to UK-resident owners (as opposed to overseas-resident), as if this was a shockingly high figure. It's pretty loopy.

Almost all the good art/craft/hobby stores I used to visit are now either luxury flats or the "convenience" versions of big supermarket chains.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

tmanbeaubien

tmanbeaubien

Explorer
Ruin Explorer said:
Morrus, let's be real, THIS. IS. LONDON!

Anything which can legally be turned into a block of extremely overpriced "luxury" flats (which inevitably requires demolishment) and sold to overseas real estate investors (who have no intention of even bothering to rent them out, in many cases, as property values appreciate enough to make it not worth it, even post-slow-down), will be turned into a block of extremely overpriced "luxury" flats. Doesn't matter if it's in good nick or totally dilapidated.
Click to expand...

This is pretty typical in New York & Miami as well. Lots of foreign investment money looking to get out of weak currencies (anybody want to buy some rubles?).
 

Henrix

Henrix

Explorer
I remember it fondly, from the time I was there. (It was in the wrong country, after all.)

But if the building and area has seen better days, it was before that.
 


nerfherder

nerfherder

Explorer
Damn! I used to walk past it on my way to work every day in the late 80's/early 90's. Another part of my London past being demolished :(
 



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