H&M

Secret shopping-​in-​London-​without-​wanting-​to-​scream tip:
Head here on a weekend for the best H&M shopping experience of your life. This store is a bit higher end, more professional wear, less of the hipstery cheap stuff. It’s extremely well put together, the staff are nice, it’s organized and not a total hot mess like other locations (ahem, Oxford Street, all of them), no ques for changing rooms. Open 12 – 6 Sundays.
Weekends at 1 New Change are where it’s AT.
It was downright pleasant and I scored a few nice pieces to boot!!!

Nice store apart from the fitting rooms, not that they are not good, but there is always a queue. And usually if you are shopping around is because you work in the area and you have only your lunch break to buy.
Apart from that, they have quite a lot of clothes on sale and it’s not overcrowed even from 12 – 2.

The quality of the clothes here may not be as good as those found in Zara or Topshop (maybe it’s the way the clothes are displayed, or something to do with those huge red price tags on sale clothing which gets to me) but, on the whole, I think things are more affordable here, and you do find some gems. The designer collaborations H&M have had with Sonia Rykiel, Jimmy Choo, Lanvin and Swedish Hasbeens have gone some way towards upping the brand’s reputation, even if it is almost impossible to get your hands on them without queueing up (having experienced a massive online failure when I tried for one of them once).
The store at One New Change is smaller than the flagship store in the West End so you may not find as much as you’d like here. Still, this shop stocks both male and female ranges so it’s as good an excuse as any to drag your boyfriend here too!
On the plus side, One New Change opens on weekends but doesn’t seem to be that popular with the shopping crowd (understandably given there’re less shops in the area). This means that this shop isn’t untidy or packed and the changing rooms are always free. Probably not good for your wallet though!