Can Sadiq Khan save Oxford Street?

Oxford Street’s spiralling tawdriness is a miserable advert for London. The ‘candy’ stores and tourist tat ‘luggage’ emporiums, the gang fights and phone snatchers are an embarrassment: tourists who are told that London is the greatest city on earth must struggle to reconcile that promise with the reality of the city’s main shopping street. Oxford Street has been on its uppers for as long as I can remember and I’ve been living nearby for over 20 years. Is it any wonder despondent locals like me steer well clear?

But all that might be about to change if London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s plan to pedestrianise the capital’s benighted thoroughfare gets the go ahead. Yup, the man who failed to crack down on London’s descent into knife-ridden lawlessness has come over all European with his £150 million dream to transform ‘London’s high street’ into a Barcelona-style Las Ramblas. His previous attempt to ban traffic was blocked by the then-Conservative run Westminster city council in 2018. For all the mayor’s many blunders, we should get behind him this time. 

Oxford Street is one of the world’s busiest shopping areas, with around half a million visitors on an average day. And it shows. By mid morning, you can barely move for the hordes of tourists elbowing each other off the pavement into oncoming buses and taxis (regular traffic has long since been banned). As such, the street is now a haven for pick-pockets who simply jump on the nearest bus once they’ve trousered your phone.

I often wonder how many of those gormless ‘shoppers’ are actually shopping. Whenever I have the misfortune to venture out into the milieu the crowds are mostly outside looking in. Whether Khan’s ambitious plans will help revive the area, which has suffered the effects of big-name shop closures in recent years, including the departure of Debenhams and House of Fraser, remains to be seen; frankly I’m not sure London even needs a mile-long high street anymore. Other than those gullible tourists, I don’t know anyone who chooses to do their shopping there. But that misses the point: Oxford Street has been left to its own vices for way too long. Something has to change. 

If the street is pedestrianised, retailers may well fret about deliveries; locals, too, might worry about traffic displacement. But these are teething problems that will eventually be ironed out. Streets invariably become more aesthetically pleasing once the stress and mess of traffic has been removed; just look how the recent pedestrianisation of the once grim eastern end of the Strand has transformed the area. James Gibbs’ 18^th century church of St Mary-le-Strand has spent most of its life as a hemmed-in roundabout; after the area was pedestrianised in 2022, it’s become a peaceful oasis surrounded by greenery and attractive seating. Without the distraction of moving vehicles you can fully appreciate the area’s remarkable architecture. The once cramped pavement outside Somerset House is a wide pedestrian plaza where you can stand back and drink in the splendour of Sir William Chambers’ masterpiece.

It’s easy to forget when confronted by an impenetrable wall of double-deckers that Oxford Street also has a fascinating mishmash of architectural styles dating back to the 18^th century; there’s the pillared Beaux-Arts grandeur of Selfridges, and the art deco elegance of the M&S building down at the Marble Arch end (let’s hope Khan manages to scupper plans to demolish this unique gem). 

Once traffic – and cyclists – have been removed, Oxford Street’s astonishingly varied architecture will finally come into its own and people will choose to go there simply to linger. I do wonder whether the newly revitalised, tree-lined boulevard will live up to its promise of European-style sophistication: Brits aren’t known for our ability to linger over a single cocktail for hours on end while admiring stylishly groomed locals as they parade by; most central London pubs don’t even have outside tables. But maybe that will all change once the buses, pickpockets and candy shacks have moved on. Khan has been a dreadful mayor of London. But all Londoners should support his plan to save Oxford Street.