Passengers walking through the arrivals doors at Heathrow Terminal 5 now find a new Pret A Manger straight ahead. The bespoke concept store, designed by architectural interiors and branding studio Draw Creative, sits immediately beyond the doors in the public arrivals area, serving organic coffee and food prepared throughout the day in the shop’s onsite kitchen.
“We are immensely proud of what we have achieved with our new shop at Heathrow Terminal 5 Arrivals. The project presented a complex design challenge: to create a flagship vision and tailored format that will welcome and impress the millions of passengers that will travel through T5. We are really happy with the outcome and hope the design will play a part in helping those visiting the UK form their first impressions of the country.”
Luke Kan, Global Head of Shop Format and Design, Pret A Manger
Shaped by the Terminal 5 roof
Draw Creative based the design on the original architecture of Heathrow Terminal 5, designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership alongside Arup, relating the shop to the terminal’s large single-span roof and open, column-free interior. Three architectural forms organise food display, service and seating:
- Food Langars: at the centre of the site, facing passengers coming from two separate arrivals exits, this timber display structure presents Pret’s fresh and hot food. A counterweight system lets the timber beams extend upwards from the floor, which Draw Creative describes as creating a sense of weightlessness while referencing fluid wind forms.
- Service counter and kitchen: covering pastry service and hot drink collection, this combines timber and steel under a cantilevered canopy, which mirrors the counter beneath and appears suspended above it.
- Seating and brand experience: curved ends frame the shop and include illuminated Pret roundels, artwork and an embossed tile feature carrying the Pret logo.
“When we were appointed to pitch for this incredible site, we knew we had to make a dramatic statement,”
“The site isn’t just an interior; it is a structural tribute to the aeronautics vision of the building. We wanted to focus the traveller’s eye on the key elements of the space while maintaining the uplifting, intuitive passenger experience that Terminal 5 is known for.”Jessica Codrington, co-Founder, Draw Creative
Eating at Terminal 5
The shop adds to the food and drink at Terminal 5, which also has Gordon Ramsay Plane Food Market.
Pret opened its first shop in London in 1986 and says it now runs more than 750 shops worldwide, with 12,500 team members across 21 international markets. Food is prepared in shop kitchens throughout the day, and unsold food is donated to charity at the end of each day.
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