Finally, it’s happening. After years of political disputes and mooted, promoted, criticised and scrapped proposals, Oxford Street will at last be pedestrianised on Monday, October 26 — or at least, some of it will be. In the first phase, almost a kilometre of the 1.9km shopping street will be shut to traffic: from Orchard Street to Great Portland Street. All being well, the eastern and western ends should follow suit in later phases.
For the newly pedestrianised “boulevard”, too, this is not the end game. What will happen initially is that cars, buses, vans and lorries will be barred. That’s it. Anyone expecting to see beautifying street furniture must wait until the busy Christmas retail season is over, when the Oxford Street Development Corporation and its partners have had a chance to absorb the feedback and observe how shoppers, visitors and business users respond to the traffic-free zone. The long-promised transformation — adding seating, planters and trees — should happen next year.
