Can Oxford Street be revived?

With IKEA announcing the opening of its flagship Oxford Street store in May, has London’s premier shopping street regained its mojo following its post-pandemic nadir and plethora of trashy American candy stores?

IKEA’s Oxford Street store was formerly Top Shop, the crown jewel of Philip Green’s retail empire. Among the reasons for IKEA’s purchase of the site was to reach customers who would typically struggle to get to its big box stores, which are often located where public transport is limited. 

In other good news for what is probably the UK’s best-known and largest shopping street, there are more new stores in the pipeline, such as a second Mango and a Third Space gym coming to The Elephant, the new name for the former House of Fraser department store, post a £132-million makeover.

Despite these new arrivals the question remains: will the street survive the remorseless growth of online retail and competition from out-of-town retail parks, which started to undermine Oxford Street way before the pandemic?

To avoid this, landlords and local government have been focusing on making Oxford Street a destination with experiential offerings, such as gyms, cafes and restaurants, in addition to quality retail outlets. Offices mixed into retail and leisure also fit into this model, bringing in workers who are potential customers.

Traditional department stores such as House of Fraser and Debenhams have closed while many existing occupiers and owners are revamping their premises to reflect the trend of creating destinations. M&S finally gained permission to demolish its flagship Oxford Street store to build an attractive modern store with a café, gym and offices, following much wrangling over planning and, indeed, the ultimate intervention of Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner.

Pedestrianisation is viewed as key to making Oxford Street an attractive destination with the current narrow crowded pavements and high taxi and bus traffic making the street unsafe, polluted and unpleasant. Furthermore, this would allow space to create a linear public amenity with green landscaping, areas to host outdoor events/markets, and such delights as pavement cafes and restaurants. 

Plans to pedestrianise Oxford Street go back a long way. The former Mayor of London, Ken Livingston tried, but plans were shelved; the current mayor, Sadiq Khan, launched a plan in 2017, which has been subject to changes and intense opposition from various groups, including Westminster Council and some local residents. 

One of the main obstacles has been the rerouting of buses with Oxford Street being seen as crucial thoroughfare. However, other major European cities have thriving main shopping streets that have been pedestrianised for many years — from Copenhagen’s Strøget to Munich’s Kaufingerstraße — while more recently Milan permanently pedestrianised several streets in its core retail area, having introduced the foot-traffic-only rules temporarily during the pandemic. It can be argued that if these cities can do it, why can’t London?

Last week, Sadiq waded into the stalled initiative, saying in effect the economic importance of Oxford Street nationally and to the capital, made the pedestrianisation scheme imperative, and that it should override the interests of a few local objectors.

This very much fits into the government’s anti-nimby mission to unlock and reform the planning system to allow the building of critically needed homes and infrastructure and help boost economic growth.

Whether the pedestrianisation plan can be forced through, and come into effect in time, and be enough to ensure a prosperous future for Oxford Street, only time will tell.