Major London landlord Shaftesbury Capital has announced that high-end activewear brand Alo Yoga has opened its new UK store in the Seven Dials area of Covent Garden.

If follows hot on the heels of Charlotte Tilbury’s opening this month and underscores Covent Garden’s appeal for a wide range of brands.

The Alo Yoga store is on the corner of Neal Street and Earlham Street, one of the busiest and most prominent locations in the neighbourhood.

The new store covers 5,000 sq ft and carries both lifestyle and activewear pieces from the label such as contemporary and trend-led loungewear, accessories and wellness products. 

Over three floors, it has managed to turn the very London building into a space that pays tribute to the brand’s Californian heritage with the bright interior contrasting with the stark exterior of the London brickwork. 

As mentioned, it follows the opening this month of Charlotte Tilbury’s significantly upsized store in Covent Garden. The global luxury make-up brand opened in a store triple the size of its previous space, in a prominent anchor unit on the corner of the Royal Opera House and James Street.

At 4,300 sq ft, it features brand-first concepts, the ‘Skin Spa’ and ‘Pillow Talk Bar’. The launch follows the brand’s success in Covent Garden after opening its first-ever store there in 2015.

The landlord also said that the two brands’ new stores follow a “milestone year of brand commitments” at Covent Garden in 2024. 

Covering almost 100,000 sq ft, 55 brands invested in the destination last year, underlining the big part it has to play in London’s physical retail recovery.

Other brands to open in the wider Covent Garden area last year included Arc’teryx, Axel Arigato, Barbour, Elemis, EL&N Deli, Delamina Townhouse, Diptyque, Longines, and Peak Performance.

There were also a number of reinvestments there including lease renewals and upsizes by Bucherer, Charlotte Tilbury, Diptyque, Finisterre, Moleskine, Strathberry and Vivo Barefoot.