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Calling all north Londoners with a penchant for posh nosh: there’ll soon be a new place to purchase your chargrilled artichoke hearts and Italian nduja paste, because Waitrose is opening a new shop in Cricklewood.
Yep, the fancy supermarket is transforming the former Galtymore Ballroom – a dance hall which was a hub for Irish emigrants between the ’50s and early 2000s – into an 18,000 square foot haven of swanky groceries.
If that news alone wasn’t enough to have you reaching for your bag for life then listen up, because the new shop will be one of very few full line Waitrose stores to open in almost a decade. That means we can expect full fresh meat, fish and cheese counters where you’ll be able to select specific cuts and weights, plus a dedicated bakery section and lots and lots of wine.
We’re also expecting the Cricklewood Waitrose to stock full selections of the Waitrose No.1 and Essential Waitrose lines. We’re still waiting on the full details to be released, but judging by its other full line supermarkets, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a sushi bar, dine-in counter or even a wine bar (as with the King’s Cross location).
If your next thought is ‘cool, but how am I going to make it home with all my goodies?’, have no fear. The shop will have a dedicated basement carpark and sits just a five minute walk from Cricklewood train station.
The new opening is part of a wider growth strategy for the supermarket, which also plans to open a full line shop in Manchester this year. Waitrose also announced last month that it is expanding into airports, starting with Heathrow T2.
Waitrose Cricklewood will open at 194-196 Cricklewood Broadway, NW2 3BN in autumn 2026.
Did you see that a posh new French bakery is coming to north London next month?
Plus: London’s iconic Trocadero is being turned into one of the city’s biggest Wetherspoons pubs.
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