To think, get rid of the driving restrictions, make parking easier and watch Oxford Street flourish 🤷‍♀️

Oxford Street makes me sad, it's declined so much. I think another thing that's made it worse is the loss of the Routemaster/conductors on the new Boris buses. You used to be able to hop on and off to move between shops, but you can't do that any more. It's one place in London that really needs them. I often want to get to a shop at the other end and walking takes ages, but by the time you've reached the bus stop you're half way there/ have missed the bus.

Oxford St upmarket?

You really are on a wind up OP

Yeah the council are on the case, the West side is already much better. IKEA is opening in the spring.

You’re wrong.

They are getting rid of the candy shops, the west side is getting better, Hannah Ricketts the London vlogger was there this month and it does look better with some new flagship shops. Have to say she does a good job encouraging tourism. All the shops looked gorgeous with stock for Valentine’s Day. People still want to shop in person.

Wasn’t it just where the flagship stores were rather than upmarket? It’s where you went when you went to London to see a big version of what was local and get the stuff you couldn’t get locally.

Pedestrianising it making it greener and making it a much better shopping experience would do much more for encouraging people in than trying to make more people drive there but making the journey worse.

A pedestrianised Oxford street with trams and cycle lanes would be great. It’s dangerous to walk down these day as so many cars ignore pedestrian green lights. If it was safer and more pleasant, maybe increased footfall would encourage better shops. It used to be such a destination and now it’s tourist tat and those candy stores that always get accused of being money laundering fronts.

Oxford St would probs do better if you took the opposite action and pedestrianised it entirely!

No, we don't want to drive

Let's face it, people don't go shopping any more. It's easier to shop online; it's more convenient, you can find more unusual & individual items, and you don't have carry everything around, it's delivered to your door.

I don't get this obsession with the high street - it's not what people want any more.

You saying keep saying ‘it’s special’ @mumofoneAlonebutokay but I asked why? Give me some reasons. Because it’s long and there are red buses and black cabs? C’mon, you’re going to have to do better than that, I’ve seen those all over London, what with their wheels and that.

This. I live in East London and use my car exclusively for leaving London. It never occurs to me to drive into Central London when the tube is quicker, less stressful and cheaper. The high street isn’t suffering because of lack of parking space, it’s because the nature of bricks and mortar retail has fundamentally changed.

NB, before they limited traffic I had to just avoid Oxford Street during summer because the air was so foul I got an awful headache being there for 5 minutes. I'm no fan of the area but it is significantly more bearable since they cut down the traffic a bit so actually fewer vehicles can be a pull.

Well even if the Mayor had some crazy power to designate swathes of parking to be free in the environs of Oxford Circus (which he doesn't as Councils control parking) how do you propose to entice people to go for this magical noisy car fume location to shop at shops that are no different to anywhere else and to buy things that are the same price or cheaper online with more choice of size? Doesn't seem to be much enthusiasm on this thread for it !

Many of us don't. I cannot fathom having a car. Lifetime of zone 2 (1 if I can be arsed to walk).
It is not a local high street unless you live in a £££ flat

Londoners do not want to drive. I'm a Londoner with a car but unless it's for work or you're the kind of person who has a chauffeur (or yes, may need to if you have a disability), no Londoner drives in central London when it's much quicker and easier to do it by tube and you don't have to find a parking space. The West End makes a lot of money from tourists, who also don't drive...it's just changing shopping habits, especially post Covid, that are killing it if anything is, not that you can't drive there. I feel like that's a rather outdated attitude.

I think we are still too car obsessed in modern cities, a lot of young people in London don't own cars and we need to move past the mania about cars and parking.

Oh no, paved walkways with cafes, how awful.

Driving to Oxford Street would be absolutely mental. It would be much preferable to pedestrianise the whole thing and let people walk down it and use the space.

I live in London. Parking is a nightmare at the best of times and, like a pp, I can get to Oxford Street in 20 mins on public transport. I haven’t driven into the West End for over15 years and never will again as there is absolutely no need. I also like the reduction in pollution from Sadiq’s measures and do not want to see them reversed.

Internet shopping has changed the retail landscape. You can’t turn that clock back.