Apple today confirmed that its Apple Festival Place store in Basingstoke, England, will close its doors for good in November 2026, while a neighboring store in Reading is undergoing a major expansion and will reopen with a new design the following month (via 9to5Mac).
Apple The Oracle will become the closest replacement around 18 miles to the old Basingstoke site, with Apple WestQuay in Southampton around 30 miles away and Apple Bentall Center around 35 miles away as the next closest alternatives.
Apple Festival Place opened in August 2011, while Apple The Oracle opened in Oracle Mall in June 2011. So both stores are celebrating just over 15 years in business, with one closing and the other being rebuilt. Apple Festival Place will continue to operate as normal through November and its staff will have the option to relocate to Apple The Oracle or another venue once closed.
Apple The Oracle is expected to reopen in December with features of the new Apple stores, including an experience room to try out select products, a dedicated Genius Bar, an Apple Pick Up area to collect online orders and free Today at Apple sessions.
The closure and rebuild are part of Apple’s ongoing plan to open, move and renovate dozens of stores around the world. In the UK alone, Apple moved its Touchwood store in Solihull to a much larger unit last summer and expanded its Trafford Center store near Manchester earlier this year, while Apple Birmingham is said to benefit from a series of upgrades.
The Basingstoke closure follows a series of more controversial store closures in the United States earlier this year, when Apple permanently closed three retail locations, including Apple Towson Town Center in Maryland, the first Apple store in the United States to unionize.
Apple has opened 11 new stores and relocated 17 others with updated designs around the world over the past 18 months. Including new locations in Miami and downtown Detroit, as well as a recent redesign of its UK flagship store on Regent Street in London.
