BP Head Office in St James’s Square in London’s West End. It is a modern office building which was purchased from Ericsson mobile telecommunications.
It is at the corner of St James’s Square and Charles II Street.

Google Earth Image of BP head office in St James’s Square, London.

The red arrows show the direction of the energy flow,

Feng Shui Analysis:

The energy comes into St James’s Square through 2 roads
- Duke of York Street (north side of the square)
- Charles II Street (east side of the square).

Most of the energy flows through Duke of York Street to the Square. In the Square. the energy flows southwards through the central park area and leaves at the junction of St James Square and Pall Mall.

Interpretation:

The energy flow by-passes the entrance of the BP Head Office. There is hardly any energy getting to the main entrance to the building. Also, there are no entrances to the building from the side street – Charles II Street.

This building is not good. Either the business is not as good as previously or the repeated occurrence of major problems and missed opportunities.

Dr Michael Oon

Britannic House in Finsbury Square

The latter period 1991 to 2001 was a very successful time where BP emerge to become a top player in the North American Oil market. Let us have a look at the Feng Shui of this building.

Google Earth image of Britannic House

Where is the energy flow?

The energy moves along Moorgate from the North to the South.
The back of the Britannic house is on Moorgate and the doors are the energy entrances to the building.

Conclusion:

The building taps the path of the following energy. The main tenet in Chinese Philosophy, where there is energy, there is life. meaning, the occupants of this building will have good luck and good fortune. When this was the BP Head Office, it did well and joined the top tier of Oil majors in North America and there were no major catastrophes that were in the headlines.

Dr Michael Oon

It is not exciting when the financial numbers do not add up and everything is not up to expectation. The worse bit, you are there all the time feeling the anguish. It can be painful.

All this can be prevented with the careful selection of premises in the first place.

Cobans Sandwich Bar

Cobans Sandwich Bar is located on Chapel Street, a side street off the High Street in the Catheral Town on Guildford. The energy, originally coming down Castle Street, flows from the South through Chapel street to the High Street.

map of Cobans Sandwich Bar on Chapel Street

Google Earth image of Cobans on Chapel Street in Guildford.

Feng Shui Analysis

The energy flows pass Cobans left to right (refer to the top image). The shop window is on a ledge, propped forward to from the “natural front” of the property. This window protrusion blocks the energy flow to the door. Secondly, the door is hung on the wrong side for the easy entry of the energy.

Recommendations:

More energy would flow into the shop with the following recommendations:

The window should be moved back to the natural front of the building. Thereby it is less of an obstacle of the energy flow passing the door.
The door should be re-hung with the hinges on the window side of the door frame.

These are minor improvements. There is nothing better than finding a site with good energy.

It is simple when you know how but, even if these corrections were made, the frequency of new occupiers change would be less. As I understand it, this is the 5th occupant of these premises in the last 24 months.

First and foremost, there is very little energy flowing down this road and most of the businesses here (other than those near the junction with Castle Street) do not appear to do well. Most are restaurants and appear to be be quiet in the weekday evenings. This is a street with problems. I would not suggest setting up a business on this street no matter how attractive the rents are. It is best to conserve capital for a better location, save your precious time and not develop frustration. Confidence comes from success; it will be difficult to get it here.

Dr Michael Oon

Knaphill village centre is essentially a ribbon development with most of the shops, together with 2 banks, along the High Street. The business in the village has always been adequate but recently, there have been a couple of store closures. What is really surprising is the busiest shop in Knaphill is the Post Office. More significantly, it is off the High Street. Every time I go there, I have to join a queue no matter what day or time it is. And a subsequent queue quickly forms behind me. In the Woking area, there have been at least 3 post offices closures and the main post office has been transferred to smaller premises.

Why is this property the busiest in Knaphill? Perhaps in Woking as well?

Google Earth image of Knaphill

Knaphill village is at the top of a hill and after the traffic lights (junction with Lower Guildford Road), the road goes downhill steeply. The energy flows through the village from the South West to the North East along the High Street. The energy speeds up when the road goes down steeply.

Knaphill Post Office

Knaphill Post Office is on a small pedestrian alley (Anchor Crescent) which is off the High Street. Anchor Crescent slopes gradually downhill all the way. The other shops there are not busy and Knaphill Post Office is the beacon of business in this locality. Why?

Google Earth image of Anchor Crescent.

The energy flowing through the High Street, some of it goes down into Anchor Crescent. It turns with the bend in the Crescent and focuses the flow at the always open door of the Post Office. This is also helped by the positioning of the display panels of an ice cream cone and newsagent sign.

The other businesses in the Crescent do not do as well as the Knaphill Post Office.

The bend on Anchor Crescent

Conclusion

It is easy to find a vacant retail property at this time. It is most likely from a business that has not succeeded in these tough economic times. What is the point of taking this property from a failed business; you are just going to inherit the problems from the previous occupiers. Secondly, you will be doing business there over a period of time, there is nothing worse than feeling the anguish and pain of doing poor business whilst you are there. It can be painful unless, you have money to burn and time to kill.

The point I am making, why do you not take time to research for a suitable location with good energy. With such a good location, you will get good business. There is no better way to build confidence than from having success. I am here it help.

Dr Michael Oon

Hanna has sold her main residence and is staying in a rented property. She is looking for 2 properties; one for herself and another for investment (a buy to let) within the home counties (the area around London).

This diary will follow her visits to each property – looking and giving an opinion for each.

The main purpose is to assist Hanna decide whether
a – Is the property suitable to be her main residence?
b – As investment property, will it be able to hold the asking rent, be able to get tenants easily without having any void periods (ie Landlord friendly).

I will be using feng shui techniques to get the insights of the property.

House Buying – House 4

This property is split up into a number of flats. It is located on top of a hill with the energy moving away on the buildings left side (dragon side). There is very little energy going into the building.
It is near a licenced business premises. This can be useful for some but a late night annoyance for others.

Comment:

1. As a main residence: You will miss the opportunities in your life.
2. As an investment property “buy to let”. Difficult to get tenants. Can expect to get long void periods.

Not recommended.

Hanna:

Rating 1/5

Dr Michael Oon

This posting describes the use of door entrances to let in energy from exterior energy pools into the property. The methodology is similar to a previous posting except that we have a river of flowing water.

The property is next to a river but there is a piece of land in between. The energy from the flowing water of the river is trapped on the piece of land to form an energy pool. Opening the “Garden Door” allows the energy from the exterior pool to come it to re-vitalise the property.

Google Earth Image of riverside property.

Connie was a corporate lawyer and wanted a new start to her life. It was time for a change. She had separated from her husband and was currently looking after their 2 children. She had just left her job and always wanted to do property development. This consultation was to prepare her for a new start.

Feng Shui Analysis

The property faced the river and there was a sloping garden between the property and the water. This sloping garden had a pool of energy from the river. Her “main door” was on the car part side of the property and there was a garden door. As it was winter, the garden door was hardly used. Whilst we were there, 2 incidents happened after I had opened the garden door.

1. Car Sale. The car had been advertised for the past 2 weeks but there was no response. Whilst there, Connie had a phone call asking for the car. As he was in the area, he asked for a test drive and Connie handed him the car keys. He came back from the test drive via the car wash and paid Connie the amount asked for in cash. No haggling.

2, Then, there can a phone call from her lawyer saying that the terms of the divorce was settled and she had custody of the children.

Later in the week – she had the final settlement from her old employers for her termination of employment and planning permission approval to start work on the property project.

Connie was involved with property development in the growth era till 2008.

Conclusion.

The main recommendation was to use the garden door frequently so as to let the energy from the exterior energy pools into her home.

There are places where there is energy in the exterior gathers in pools. It is the job of the feng shui consultant to identify them and then, work out a way where the energy can be “carried” into the property.

Dr Michael Oon

Hanna has sold her main residence and is staying in a rented property. She is looking for 2 properties; one for herself and another for investment (a buy to let) within the home counties (the area around London).

This diary will follow her visits to each property – looking and giving an opinion for each.

The main purpose is to assist Hanna decide whether
a – Is the property suitable to be her main residence?
b – As investment property, will it be able to hold the asking rent, be able to get tenants easily without having any void periods (ie Landlord friendly).

I will be using feng shui techniques to get the insights of the property.

House Buying – House 3

The building (in the image) is at an end of a cul-de-sac is sub-divided into a number of flats.
There is a convoluted passage to get into the property. You have to go through the gates, pass the front of the building then down the narrow passage by the brick wall (on the right of the image, next to the red car). There is not direct and hardly any energy (qi) will get into this property. Therefore, each flat was not have insufficient energy.

I would suspect, there was difficulty in selling the property in the first place.

Comment:

1. As a main residence: You will miss the opportunities in your life.
2. As an investment property “buy to let”. Difficult to get tenants. Can expect to get long void periods.

Not recommended.

Hanna:

Rating 1/5

Dr Michael Oon

1. Yeow Kee Kopitiam (External view)

Yeow Kee Kopitiam is an extremely busy coffee shop in Kuching, a Malaysian city in the island of Borneo. It not only has a high turnover of customers but very high number of vendors (for the space) than any other coffee shop that I have visited in Malaysia.

2. Full house at Yeow Kee (customers and vendors)

When coffee shop has an extremely high number of customers, the coffee shop as landlords, can not only have more more food vendors on the premises but also select whom. Also, they can charge a premium on the rent. Conversely, a coffee shop with low number of customers, might only have one or two food vendors on a similar sized premises.

3. Food vendors at Yeow Kee Kopitiam

Yeow Kee Kopitiam is extremely busy with high turnover of customers and has 12 food vendors including a very large vendor (occupying 6 units) selling cake and bread. (image 2.). A average coffee shop of this size would normally have between 2 to 4 food vendors. Why this difference?

Feng Shui Analysis

4. Google Earth Image of Yeow Kee Kopitiam and the plot of land

From the Google earth image, Yeow Kee Kopitiam is on the top right side of the shop houses, surrounded by parked cars. There is an empty plot of land on North East of Yeow Kee. The energy on this plot moves downhill to Yeow Kee. This energy comes from the North East, which is currently the predominant energy.

5. View of the plot of land from Yeow Kee Kopitiam

Yeow Kee Kopitiam is not only getting a large quantity of energy, but of a good quality. Hence, the good business experience by this location.

Conclusion

The prosperity of Yeow Kee Kopitiam is dependant of this empty plot of land. As soon it gets built, this will change the quantity and quality of energy from this plot and this will affect the business.

Dr Michael Oon

Acknowledgements: Mr CP Lim for the photograph of the Image 5

Further Blogs on Coffee Shops

Selecting the location of a Coffee shop

Selecting the location of a Coffee shop – part 2

Selecting the location of a Coffee shop – Starbucks coffee – part 3

Why is Yeow Kee Kopitiam (Coffee Shop) in Kuching, Malaysia, exceptionally busy?

Energy Helps the Coffee Flow – Guest Post by Diane Kern

The Heart Hospital became part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (public hospital) in 2001 after being purchased from a private sector. The building was re-furbished with state of the art facilities in the mid 1990s but there, apparently, had operational and financial problems. Eventually, the owners decided to sell the hospital to the NHS (National Health Service).

There have been many comments in Feng Shui books but I am presenting one just based on the flow of energy (qi).

Feng Shui Analysis:

The hospital is on Westmoreland Street and Wheatley Street coming towards forming a “T” junction.

The Wheatley Street is higher at the Heart Hospital side than the other end. Therefore, the energy flows away (red arrow) from the hospital.

It is the central tenet of Chinese Philosophy that energy (qi) bring life. Therefore, with energy (qi) flowing away, the hospital does not do as well as it can.

Comment:

The analysis of “T” junctions is very straight forward. Does the energy flow towards the property or does the energy flow away from the property.
When the energy flows towards, the business in the property prospers
When the energy flows away, the business in the property does not do well.

Dr Michael Oon

Friday 30th April sees the entry of a new entrant in the Electrical sector of the competitive British Retail Market by the American market leader – BestBuy. The UK incumbents include the market leader Currys, Comet and Tesco.

Currys have just opened a new format store of 100,000 sq ft at the Lakeside Retail Park. This location has been labelled “curse of the Death Store” after the the closure of Marks & Spencer Lifestyle store in 2004 and ILVA in 2006. It is only co-incidential that this location had been leased by these 2 failed businesses. The closures relate to the business and not this particular location.
Currys is now the brand name for Dixons (or DSG International) which had an aggressive sales approach but has become more customer focussed with the new management and probably, the impending arrival of BestBuy.

BestBuy, with about 20 percent of the North American Market, is famed for its customer service and product range. Their sales staff approach you with “Do you have a question?” and answer with passion about their products. Many men that I know, have bought more than they had come for. It has happened to me so many times. Rather than having buyers remorse, I feel pleased about the purchases as I feel I know what the product can do but also, know how to use it.

Feng Shui analysis

Currys Store. It is a large retail property with 2 entrances facing the car park with energy flowing in from other parts of the car park. It is a “standard property” that is OK but not outstanding. Much work like publicity needs to be done to the store. They are currently offering a 10% discount on a number of their products with extensive media campaigns.
.
Rating 3 out of 5

BestBuy Store. A purpose built retail store with the characteristic sloping roof having a large BestBuy signage.

This store has 2 sources of energy.

1. The car park in front is linked by a walkway. The energy flows down from the car park to the entrances but, a large pillar supporting a large BestBuy Sign creates

2. The road coming from the car park allows energy to flow downhill. This energy comes from the current pre-dominant direction of North East .

However, the entrance is on a slope which does not allow the energy to settle. The doors have to capture the energy,

Rating 4.5 out of 5

Conclusion:
Currys: A lot of hard work will be necessary for this location to do well

BestBuy Store: Will do well but there will be occasional but periodic big problems that will arise. A re-location of the pillar for the sign will negate the regularity of these problems.

Dr Michael Oon