London’s Oxford Street to go traffic-free in shopping area makeover, says mayor

LONDON: London’s Oxford Street, one of Britain’s busiest and most famous shopping districts, will be pedestrianised, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said on Tuesday, in a move designed to smarten up the area and create a new public space to help drive growth.

The plan to rid Oxford Street of cars and buses, which has been over twenty years in the making, looks set to become a reality after consultations on proposals published in September showed a majority of Londoners and businesses back the idea.

Supporters of pedestrianising the mile-long stretch in central London say similar traffic-free schemes for Times Square in New York and La Rambla in Barcelona have breathed new life into tired areas.

“We want to rejuvenate Oxford Street; establish it as a global leader for shopping, leisure and outdoor events with a world-class, accessible, pedestrianised avenue,” Khan said in a statement announcing the results of the public consultation.

Oxford Street attracts around half a million visitors every day, according to the mayor’s office, but many flagship stores including House of Fraser and Topshop have shut in recent years, and Khan said the area had been neglected.

He will now work with the government on legislation to go traffic-free, which would happen “as quickly as possible”. That will require finding new routes for the dozens of buses which travel down it each hour.

The government has said Khan’s plan for a new “beautiful public space” which will attract more tourists, drive new investment in the area and create jobs.