A new car free stretch lies ahead for Oxford Street. Will it make business boom or fall flat?
On Monday morning Londoners will awake to a seismic change in how the city gets around. A 1km stretch of Oxford Street, one of the most famous retail strips in the world, will suddenly be for pedestrians only. No buses, taxis or bicycles will be allowed along a part of the road between Orchard Street and Great Portland Street. It’s a switch that was first mooted in the 1960s and that – at various stages – residents, retailers and local councils have thwarted. Determined to deliver the project, London mayor Sadiq Khan set up a development corporation in January that gave him the necessary planning powers to push the measure through. Some 10 months later, it’s happening.
On Sunday night, teams will come in to remove bus stops and redundant traffic signals but it will take some months for new seating, plazas and planting to be added. Nabeel Khan, the new corporation’s chief executive, says that Monday “is going to be the start of what will be a period of change, test and review”. He makes it clear that the key ambition is to make a vibrant street that works for Londoners and visitors. “The economic performance of this street and the wider West End is critical. And all the evidence suggests that once you pedestrianise a space and make it easier for people to visit, to dwell, this results in more spending for retailers.”
Will it work? Pedestrianisation is not always a panacea. In the UK during the 1960s, for example, many town centres lost footfall and became hangouts for vagrants and pockets of crime without the bustle of traffic. Oxford Street will only thrive if it becomes a public space that people have affection for and use, if security is robust and if it does not become a police-car-free haven for pickpockets and phone-snatchers. The ambition, however, is there.
On Monday, Monocle Radio’s ‘The Globalist’ will be reporting live from Oxford Street.
Further reading
Interview: Sadiq Khan on designing the London of the future
After decades of failure, are North America’s pedestrian malls on the road to success?
