Breathe easy: Oxford Street will be pedestrianised by 2020

The Mayor of London’s office has just announced that Oxford Street – shopping nirvana, hellish thoroughfare, air pollution blackspot – will be pedestrianised by 2020. With more than four million people visiting the 1.2-mile road each week, it’s safe to say that making your way down Oxford Street can be quite the obstacle course, even without bringing buses and taxis into the mix.

The plans aren’t being put in place to give us more space to swing our shopping bags, however. The decision comes following Sadiq Khan’s promise to clean up the air we breathe (thousands of Londoners are believed to die from air pollution-related illnesses each year).

Traffic-free shopping days have been in place since Christmas in 2005, and these new plans will be rolled out in stages with the eastern section between Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Circus saying ta-ra to traffic first.

Find out about traffic-free shopping days on Regent Street this summer.