Pop-up Pokémon Centre London announced

UPDATE 11am: London's pop-up Pokémon Centre will open in Westfield Shepherd's Bush shopping centre from 18th October to 15th November, the Pokémon Company has now confirmed.

ORIGINAL STORY 10am: London is getting a pop-up Pokémon Centre, the franchise's exclusive shopping destination.

Currently only open in Japan, the US and Singapore, Pokémon Centres are like Disney stores for the pocket monster phenomenon.

That is to say, they're place you can buy acres of Pokémon merchandise - some of which is exclusive and can not be found elsewhere.

I've been to a couple of the stores in Tokyo - they're bright, welcoming hubs for Pokémon fans of all ages. This one, thankfully, will be a lot closer to home.

The Pokémon Company has yet to detail exactly where the store will be - it's still teasing a picture of Pikachu in a bowler hat on its Twitter account. But promotional pictures posted to GamePress this morning reveal the full image and a mock-up of what the store will look like.

Unfortunately, the image descriptions describe the store as simply a "pop-up" destination. This makes it sound similar to the temporary Pokémon Centre shop which opened in Paris a few years back and only stayed put for three weeks.

This year's mainline Pokémon games Sword and Shield are set in the UK, of course - which is probably why the store is opening in the capital. We'll update when we have firm word on when and where it will be open.