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Londoners fear it. Tourists flock to it. Councils and local governments row about it. Let's face it: Oxford Street has seen better days. Blasted for its narrow pavements and bus-ridden roads, not least for the demise of its shopping experience through the ubiquity of American candy stores and the loss of iconic shops (RIP Topshop), the future of the world-renowned shopping destination is looking a bit hazy.
Since 2017, a number of plans have surfaced that proposed the pedestrianisation of the area, aiming to make it vehicle free to reduce traffic. The plans to regenerate the district resembled a beacon of hope for Oxford Street. The goal was to transform a 150m-long stretch between Great Portland Street and John Prince's Street into a pedestrian-only area, which would have been shut to buses and taxis.
Now, however, the blueprint for the £150 million ‘pedestrian piazza’ project has been scrapped. According to Geoff Barraclough, cabinet minister for planning and economic development in Westminster council’s new Labour administration, the area's survival rests upon creating a range of different attractions in the area, including hospitality amenities, not just shops.
‘Everybody agrees that Oxford Street should be the nation’s premier shopping street,’ he told a Voice of Authority webinar. ‘It’s 1.8km long, the centre of the biggest city in Europe and it’s not right. We know that the mix of commercial needs to change. There isn’t really demand for 1.8km of retail. We need a mixture of leisure, hospitality, and cultural uses … I’m very keen to support that.’
Barraclough said that a whopping sum set aside to spruce up the area was burnt through by the previous administration. He added that £35 million was spent in total, with £6 million spent on the Marble Arch mound fiasco, with approximately £70,000 actually spent on the street itself.
With the arrival of the Elizabeth line, which stops at Tottenham Court Road (and soon Bond Street) from Reading and Abbey Wood, Westminster council estimated that an additional 60 million pedestrians would flock to the West End per year, further exacerbating the demand to increase pedestrian space and reduce pollution in the area.
But the plans have been brought to a halt, and what the future holds for Oxford Street is very uncertain. The area has come under fire in recent years due to its quality of business, high congestion and pollution. This follows a council-led investigation into certain businesses, such as American candy stores and souvenir shops that have flooded the area, and have been allegedly avoiding business rates.
Though it looks like pedestrianisation was just a pipe dream, what happens next for Oxford Street is up to Westminster council.
Lizzy line, who? You might soon be able to get from Essex to London via Uber Boat.