The Apple Store: Covent Garden

Following the runaway success of its flagship Regent Street branch, Apple has opened its largest store in the world to date with this three-storey gadget emporium in Covent Garden. Located in a former nightclub and restaurant in Covent Garden Piazza, the new store is the Californian company's 300th retail outlet in the world and employs 300 staff. The first thing you'll notice is just how spacious the place is: centred around an airy open atrium there are separate rooms (each with exposed brickwork, oak tables and stone floors) for iMacs, MacBooks, iPads, iPhones and iPods. Welcome services include a special Start Up Room, where you can be talked through how to set up your new Apple product free of charge the moment you've bought it; a Community Room for advanced workshops; and a Genius Bar, where experts will gather to answer any Apple-related problems. Apple's Regent Street Branch, the first to open outside the US back in 2004, is the most profitable shop in the UK, bringing in ?60m a year. We expect the new Covent Garden Branch to give it a run for its money.