Pokémon's first permanent store outside Asia is coming

If you have spent years hunting down Pokémon merchandise from overseas or settling for the online store, there is some genuine news on the horizon. The Pokémon Company International has announced it is opening a permanent, physical Pokémon store in London, and it comes with a first: this will be the brand's first dedicated retail location anywhere outside of Asia. It is not a pop-up or a temporary takeover, but a proper shop, and it is being framed as the first of several permanent stores planned to launch outside Asia.

The catch is the timeline. The store is scheduled to open by 2029, so this is a long-term plan rather than something you can add to this weekend's to-do list. There is still very little to go on in terms of the specifics: no address has been confirmed, no floor plan has been shared, and the company has not even called it a "Pokémon Center", which is the name given to the stores in Japan. What has been laid out is the intent behind it. The store is being built around the pillars of product and experience, aimed at both new Trainers and long-time collectors, with community at the centre of the concept. Gaku Susai, Chief Product and Experience Officer at The Pokémon Company International, described it as a place where visitors can step into the world of Pokémon whether they are discovering the brand for the first time or have been Trainers for years, and where everyone can come together and feel part of a community.

While the store itself is years away, there is something you can actually do in London right now. The Science Museum is running a free Pokémon Space Trail in collaboration with the European Space Agency, which opened on 2 October and runs until 3 January. You pick up a free copy of the trail from the Energy Hall and follow it past large-scale installations, encountering Pokémon like Pikachu, Lunatone and Arceus along the way. A key stop is the museum's new Space gallery, which opened in September 2025 and holds the Russian Soyuz capsule that carried British astronaut Tim Peake into orbit in 2015. Over in the Power Up gallery, with its 160 working video games and consoles, you can play Pokémon Snap on Nintendo 64, Pokémon Battle Revolution on Wii and Pokémon Legends: Z-A on Switch 2. Pokémon GO players can catch an Astronaut Pikachu and take on Timed Research tasks, and there is a dedicated Pokémon gift shop on the mezzanine level selling an Astronaut Pikachu plush, clothing, stationery and selected Trading Card Game products from the Scarlet & Violet series. It is free, but you need to book a timed ticket in advance.

London is not new to the brand, which is part of why this permanent step matters. The city has hosted temporary Pokémon stores before, at Stratford's ExCel centre and the Natural History Museum, and the UK is one of the few regions with its own Pokémon Center online store. For context, a Pokémon Center did open in New York City back in 2001, but it closed in 2005 to become the Nintendo New York store. The Pokémon Company International, which manages the brand outside Asia, was formed in 2009 from the merger of Pokémon USA and Pokémon UK. So, while the shop itself is a long way off, the groundwork has been building for years.