Mango, Oliver Bonas, Injectual and Starbucks Sign at Get Living's £500M The Elephant Town Centre in London
Get Living has confirmed five new retail lettings at The Elephant, its £500m town centre development in London's Elephant & Castle, adding Blend Family, Mango, Oliver Bonas, Injectual and Starbucks to the scheme's growing tenant roster ahead of a planned late-2026 opening.
Five New Tenants Confirmed at The Elephant
The latest signings, announced Sept. 21, 2026, span food and beverage, fashion, lifestyle retail, medical aesthetics and coffee. Blend Family, a UK food hall operator, will open a 13,951-square-foot food hall called The Elephant Exchange in November 2026. The venue will feature 14 independent kitchens offering a range of cuisines, alongside a bar, coffee shop and children's play area. Blend Family says the space will also host a year-round programme of pop-up events, collaborations and community activations.
International fashion brand Mango has taken a 3,737-square-foot store, while lifestyle retailer Oliver Bonas will occupy a 3,042-square-foot unit offering fashion, jewellery, homeware and gifts. Both represent the first locations for each brand in the immediate local area.
Injectual, described as the world's first intelligent injectables studio, will open its third London location in a 1,419-square-foot space at the development. The studio is led by Dr Veerle Rotsaert and will offer practitioner-led injectable and skin treatments alongside its own skincare range. Coffeehouse chain Starbucks will also open at the town centre, rounding out the five new lettings.
Blend Family's Food Hall Anchors the F&B Strategy
The Elephant Exchange food hall is positioned as a central gathering point within the new town centre. Matt Bigland, Founder and CEO of Blend Family, said the signing marks a significant milestone for the operator. "We're thrilled to bring Blend Family to another part of London's rapidly developing neighbourhood," Bigland said. "It's a huge milestone for the team. It reflects the incredible hard work and belief in building vibrant destinations to shape the future of Elephant & Castle's cultural landscape."
The food hall component fits a broader trend in UK retail. The UK food-hall market grew from 114 to 149 trading venues in the 12 months to 2026, with the development pipeline rising from 52 to 65 sites over the same period. Operators and landlords have increasingly used food halls to activate mixed-use regeneration schemes and extend dwell time across day-to-evening trading hours.
Earlier Signings Build Out a Multi-Anchored Offer
The five new lettings follow a series of previously announced tenants at The Elephant. Everyman will open a five-screen cinema with service-to-seat dining, a bar, a programme of events, Q&As, live broadcast theatre, opera and ballet screenings, and members' events. M&S Food will open a fresh market-style food store with a dedicated Click & Collect point for fashion and home and beauty orders placed online.
High-street operators Pret A Manger, Superdrug and Blank Street have also signed, alongside speciality tea brand Bird & Blend, health-focused café Jungle Berry and Latin food market DistriAndina, which will relocate from nearby arches to the new town centre.
Aidan Malia, Senior Director at The Elephant, said the project is taking shape. "We're really excited about our latest retail signings at The Elephant. From a brand new food hall from one of the UK's leading F&B operators, Blend Family, creating a new dining destination for London, to the first Mango and Oliver Bonas stores in the local area, The Elephant is really starting to take shape, and there is much more to come."
Development Scale and Market Context
The Elephant is part of Get Living's broader Elephant & Castle programme, which sits within the £4bn Elephant & Castle Opportunity Area. The current phase of the scheme will deliver 135,000 square feet of shops, dining and leisure space, 55,000 square feet of workspace and 485 new homes for market and affordable rent. A further phase is planned to add 507 rental homes and 452 student homes, bringing the wider Elephant & Castle transformation to an estimated £1.5bn in total development value.
In 2027, a new University of the Arts London campus for the London College of Communication is set to open at the site, accommodating around 5,500 students and staff. The campus will also house the UAL Archives and Special Collections Centre, including the Stanley Kubrick archive, with public access planned. Future plans include a 27,800-square-foot cultural venue created through the repurposing of part of the existing London College of Communication building.
The pre-leasing activity at The Elephant comes against a backdrop of tight retail supply across central London. Prime central London retail vacancy stands at 4% or below on most prime streets, and 64% of London's prime retail streets recorded rental growth over the past year. Oxford Street vacancy fell from 4.3% at the end of 2024 to 0.4% by June 2026, while average prime central London rents rose 7.6% year on year in the second quarter of 2026. That demand environment supports a landlord's ability to secure national and international brands into a newly created retail destination before it opens.
Get Living operates more than 6,200 homes across seven neighbourhoods in the UK, including East Village, Elephant Central and The Filigree in London, One Maidenhead in Berkshire, Sherlock Quarter in Birmingham, Oakgate in Leatherhead and New Maker Yards in Salford. The company says The Elephant is expected to be among the largest retail-led openings in Zone 1 in recent years when it launches in late 2026.
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