Forbidden Planet is a chain of shops in the UK, Ireland and New York which sells almost everything related to comics and Science Fiction/fantasy. From Thundercats T-shirts, through Ian M. Banks books, to Buffy the Vampire Slayer toys, they've got it all. The name comes from the classic Sci-Fi film.
Forbidden Planet Limited was originally set up with a single retail outlet in London (UK) in 1978 by Nicholas Landau, Michael Lake and Michael Luckman. They quickly created a larger chain of shops all over the UK by creating new businesses run by two of the owners of Forbidden Planet Limited and at least one other person, who would then run that shop. The new shops would be allowed to use the Forbidden Planet and rocket ship logos to create a sense of brand identity.
In the early 90s the chain was split into two separate companies, with Michael Lake and Michal Luckman running Forbidden Planet (Scotland) Limited and Nicholas Landau running Forbidden Planet Limited. I should probably point out that despite the name, Forbidden Planet Scotland had both Scottish shops, the Irish shop and the Cardiff shop, as well as the Nottingham store. This was a less than amicable split where both parties would continue to use the Forbidden Planet brand and would co-operate. Eventually, though, Forbidden Planet Limited claimed the Forbidden Planet and rocket ship logos as their sole trademarks and Forbidden Planet (Scotland) Limited had to cease the use of these. (FP Scotland ended up using white polythene bags for a while until they got themselves a new logo and identity)
Since then both companies have opened many new shops and Forbidden Planet (Scotland) Limited have changed their name to Forbidden Planet International.
Below is an almost definitely incomplete list of FP and FPI shops:
- 71-75 New Oxford St, London
- 175 North End, Croydon
- 60 Burleigh St., Cambridge
- Unit 452, Bull Ring Centre, Birmingham
- 31 Cross Cheaping, Coventry
- 38 Priory Queensway, Birmingham - superstore
- 92 Bold Street, Liverpool
- 59 Grainger St., Newcastle
- 30 Penn Street, Bristol
- 43-45 East Street, Southampton
- 63/64 High Street, Colchester
- 30 Eastgate, The Headrow, Leeds
- 12 Matilda, off the Moor, Sheffield
- 129 Middle Walk, Broadmarsh Centre, Nottingham
- Leigh Delamere Granada Services, M4 East-bound
- Reading Granada Services M4 Eastbound, Reading
- 5 Duke Street, Cardiff
- 40-41 South Bridge, Edinburgh
- 168 Buchanan Street, Glasgow
- 840 Broadway (at 13th Street), NY
- 5 Crompton Quays, Dublin
- 65 Oldham Street, Piccadilly, Manchester - megastore
- 41 Dundas Street Middlesbrough
- 12-14 Schoolhill Aberdeen
- 47 Winetavern Street Belfast
Forbidden Planet International also have a
website at www.forbiddenplanetinternational.com and Forbidden Planet New York have one at www.forbiddenplanetnyc.com although it's rather empty...
Sources:
- www.patent.gov.uk/tm/legal/decisions/inter1999/o06299.pdf
- A Forbidden Planet International shopping bag
- Comics International website www.comics-international.com