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

[mumofoneAlonebutokay]

Just that really

https://metro.co.uk/2025/01/28/oxford-street-suffers-fatal-blow-multiple-retailers-announce-leaving-22447406/

How many shops are closing in Westfield, both branches? Londoners want to drive.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 street is just an international retail hub 😄

Things can be special without being extraordinary. Just like Westfield, it's just a mall, but you go there if you want to shop

I really think it needs saving and we'll miss it if it's gone

There are places to eat everywhere and entertainment spaces all over London (which are also dying, and londons night scene is disappearing which no-one is doing anything about)

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.

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.

So glad they're ditching the candy shops!

Pedestrianising wouldn't improve things imo. Allow cars to come in from the surrounding areas, work with local councils to make parking cheaper and more plentiful and watch things improve, albeit slowly

You’re wrong.

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

Oxford St upmarket?

You really are on a wind up OP

I didn't grow up wealthy, apologies everyone 😄😄

It's not upmarket but its definitely flagship retail stores rather than shops selling tat and things you can buy on the market, is what I meant

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.

Are you really a Londoner? There's a mahoosive NCP on Park Lane at the West End of Oxford St and numerous smaller car parks nearby, that you can pre-book on line to ensure a space, but most Londoners I know would rather eat a porcupine than drive across that part of town during the day, anyway, so its a bit moot.
Qualifying disabled Londoners can use Dial-a-Ride, and there's a lot of public transport into that part of town, including some step-free access via tube (admittedly not on all lines).
Honestly the main reason for the flight from Oxford Street and the surrounding area is that retail property and Business Rates are almost prohibitively expensive, which makes it difficult to justify keeping a branch open there. Up until the recent changes, John Lewis was paying £16.5 million a year, just in business rates, never mind rent, staff, security and cost of stock. That reduced to ~ £6.5 million rates per year in 2023., which is still a lot.

Hard agree here, this would be great but tfl would see it as a cash loss

I am a londoner and I don't qualify for dial a ride 😄 - i called once and they pretty much told me not to bother. Most disabled londoners who hold a blue badge don't qualify for dial a ride, I know that for sure

I didn't know that the car park was on Oxford street as have always taken the train in but have seen the website and it's £10 and hour plus the long walk down Oxford street 🥺

Lived in London my whole
life (nearly 50 years), I'd never drive to Oxford st even without restrictions, it would never be quicker than the tube and I live zone 3. You can drive to Westfield easily already.

Oxford st has always been for teenagers. Real shoppers go to soho and still do.

The Tottenham Court Road end is, and certainly has been for the last 30 years, full of small shops selling tourist tat

This is the most insane take I’ve seen about London on here.

All the places that have been done up nicely and people now want to visit over the last 30y are because they’re pedestrianised. Look at granary square/coal drop’s yard, Covent Garden, south bank, the strand, Trafalgar Square (north side)…..

Oxford street is a shit hole that takes ages to walk anywhere because pedestrians are crammed in either side and it takes forever to cross any side street. It could be incredible with places to sit and more food outlets/interesting street food. That, and decent flagships of high street brands would bring people in. Cars ruin cities.

NCP will have either paid huge amounts of money for the land for the car park or have leased it also for huge amounts of money. They won't be giving away free parking on Saturday afternoons or even cheaper parking beyond blue badge rates. If nobody paid their rates the car park would be empty and it's not.

Are you suggesting on street parking on/around Oxford Street?. That's the only way someone with difficulty walking distances would be able to get from shops at one end to the other. Park in a bay, go in Shop A. Leave get in car drive down to another Bay park go in shop and leave again. Repeat as necessary. Is there a huge demand to go to John Lewis followed by Matalan and Boots on Oxford Street? Are people longing to browse the Nespresso store then check out if it's cheaper at Currys or Selfridges. People do it online now. I literally cannot think of why I'd specifically chose Oxford Street now over either shopping online or going to a smaller local branch of the chains they have.

It's already difficult to manage traffic Vs humans just with buses and taxis driven by people professionally who risk losing their jobs if they drive aggressively etc. Add in impatient people in private cars and you'd see accidents rocket. Plus the pollution levels would climb again while most people are in non EVs.
That's one of the reasons people often go to shopping centres/malls. No traffic going through the middle of it so it's easier to get around. Even malls are struggling and are no longer just retail but adding in experiences like bowling or escape rooms etc. Adding parking spaces to Oxford Street isn't going to change the way things look for high street retail

I lived a few minutes from soho and I don’t think I have ever done any serious shopping in Soho apart from alcohol. Where are the serious shops?

I lived in East London until recently, with a car, and literally never found that I wanted to drive to Oxford St. The congestion charge would have been off-putting but also it would just be much easier by public transport. I'm just not sure this 'demand' is really a thing.