After over two years of frustration, dozens of vehicles stuck in a mechanical stacked car park at Rathbone Square, near Oxford Street in Central London, are finally being released.
Vehicle owners have received an email from property managers CBRE confirming that retrieval slots will be available from Thursday through 23 May.
According to the email, a three-hour window will be allocated for each collection, and the car stacker will remain closed to new vehicles during this period.
A resident of the Rathbone Square development claimed that as many as 40 vehicles may have been trapped. However, CBRE has not confirmed the exact number. Nor have they provided any explanation for the prolonged malfunction or commented on whether affected owners can claim for financial losses.
Among those impacted were Mark Lucas and Steve Davies, co-owners of Buckinghamshire-based HCS Furniture. Their brand-new Vauxhall Vivaro van became stuck in December 2022 — a setback that has cost their business over £46,000.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Mr Davies, who described the experience as “dreadful”. He highlighted the strain placed on their business operations and criticised CBRE for what he described as a serious lack of communication.
“If they’d just communicated better and told us what was really happening, it wouldn’t have been so traumatic,” he said.
Though the retrieval date is now in sight, Mr Davies remains cautious. He said they intend to have the van transported using a low-loader lorry rather than risk starting it on site.
“We’re going to get it low-loaded so that we can get it back to our place to make sure it’s OK, rather than risk driving it in whatever state it is in.”
The van will first be taken to the Vauxhall garage for a full service and battery diagnostics to assess potential damage after being idle for over two years. The cost of this recovery, combined with prior losses, will determine the size of the compensation claim they plan to submit.
According to Double Parking Systems, the company responsible for maintaining the automated system, though not the one that installed it, the car park has been fully operational since 15 March. However, vehicle retrievals were only recently scheduled to commence.
Stacked parking systems use mechanical lifts to maximise limited urban space by parking cars vertically. While innovative, such systems can become logistical nightmares when they fail, as Rathbone Square has clearly demonstrated.
The long-awaited release of vehicles from Rathbone Square’s car park brings some relief to affected owners.
Yet questions linger around the cause of the delay and who will foot the bill for thousands of UK pounds in losses and recovery costs. For small businesses like HCS Furniture, the ordeal has been more than just inconvenient — it’s been financially and emotionally draining.
