An Oxford Street with no cars is a charming fantasy. But ignore the “red wall of metal” at your peril, writes James Ford
Everyone who has held the office of Mayor of London has shared a simple dream: to pedestrianise Oxford Street. Indeed, even before the post of Mayor of London was created (in 2000) there were boffins and town planners beavering away on a solution to the ‘Oxford Street problem’. Past ideas have included: a giant travelator conveying shoppers (the 1960s), a special track for cars to be moved on air cushions in (the 1970s) and, more recently, a slow-moving tram running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch. Regardless of who was Mayor, or how visionary the concept, these ambitions all came to naught.
The benefits of a pedestrianised Oxford Street are clear: improved air quality, more space for shoppers and a better visitor experience. Happier shoppers visiting in greater numbers mean that the West End will continue to attract the biggest retail brands which, in turn, creates jobs, generates vital tax revenues and ensures that London retains its global reputation as a destination for international visitors.
Now it seems that a car-free Oxford Street is poised to become a reality. Plans by the Mayor to create a Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC) have received the support of deputy prime minister Angela Rayner. An MDC for the West End – like the existing MDCs for Old Oak Common and the former Olympic Park – would have sweeping planning powers and be able to overrule decisions made by Oxford Street’s local authority, Westminster City Council (WCC).
However, the simple truth is that it is not WCC that has historically prevented the pedestrianisation of ‘the nation’s high street’. In 2021, when still under Conservative control, WCC supported plans to create a large pedestrian piazza at each end of Oxford Street to reduce traffic flows. Even the new Labour administration that took control of WCC in 2022 (and abandoned the piazzas plan) have developed their own proposals to tackle congestion and widen walkways. The issue, though, has never really been about banning cars at all. The problem has always been Transport for London and, more specifically, the number of bus routes that run down Oxford Street.
The real villains: buses blocking Oxford Street
A 2010 report by the London Assembly’s Transport Committee found that more than 300 buses an hour travelled along Oxford Street at peak times and that 218,000 passengers travel to, from or along Oxford Street every day. No wonder then that there was a collision with a bus on the street every 3.4 days. The impact of all this boarding and alighting on traffic speeds was devastating, with average speeds shuddering to between 4.4 and 6.9 mph. Bus schedulers allocated 22 minutes of journey time for any bus traversing the length of Oxford Street. The then-mayor, Boris Johnson, described this phenomenon as a “red wall of metal” whilst, in 2017, London Travel Watch concluded: “If Oxford Street was a bus depot, it would be the largest in Europe.” Reducing this volume of bus traffic has taken years to address. Boris Johnson told the cut Oxford Street buses by 10 per cent in 2009 and then a further 10 per cent 2010. Sadiq Khan reduced or redirected a further 40 per cent of bus traffic in 2017.
If Oxford Street was a bus depot, it would be the largest in Europe
The impact of Covid on bus usage and the opening of the Elizabeth Line have meant that fewer shoppers and workers are now relying on buses to get them to and from Oxford Street, but the real headache of achieving pedestrianisation is where to relocate the remaining bus traffic. Residents in Mayfair and Fitzrovia to the south and north of Oxford Street respectively may be comparatively few in number, but they can be a vocal and influential lobby and are unlikely to welcome any dramatic increase in bus traffic along roads immediately parallel to Oxford Street (assuming those roads can even handle an increase in bus traffic).
Pedestrianisation is unlikely to be the silver bullet that many seem to assume and it alone will not solve all of the West End’s problems. The Met Police need to do more to tackle violent street crime in central London. The Treasury should urgently look to restore tax-free shopping for tourists (the loss of which cost West End retailers £400m in unrealised sales last year according to the NWEC). And multiple agencies need to step up and address the issue of all those ‘candy shops’ in the West End (many of which are allegedly fronts for money laundering). But creating an MDC for the West End is an important first step that could potentially reverse some of the relative, post-Covid decline that the West End has seen in the last few years.
If successful, this approach could even embolden Sadiq Khan and the Labour government to embrace a more muscular, interventionist approach to tackling London’s long-term, strategic challenges – even if that means challenging some of the vested interests that have held London back for too long. More Mayoral Development Corporations – and more sobbing bus planners – may well be on the capital’s horizon.