Regent Street will close to traffic for the first time in five years and be transformed into a “fully pedestrianised winter wonderland”.
The busy shopping street will be pedestrianised between 2pm and 9pm on Saturday December 6 as part of a car-free day of Christmas shopping and celebrations.
It follows the “roaring success” of a one-day pedestrianisation of Oxford Street, with over two thirds of shops reporting similar or higher sales during the event.
Regent Street will be pedestrianised along its Festive Mile, stretching between Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus.
Three vintage red buses will be parked under the Christmas lights along the curved road to help add to the festive cheer.
The Regent Street event will show what pedestrianised parts of the West End could look and feel like in the future.
The Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan hopes to pedestrianise neighbouring Oxford Street by 2027.
The street went traffic-free between Orchard Street and Oxford Circus – about half a mile between Selfridges and the junction with Regent Street - in September to offer a glimpse of how the area could be transformed.
In June, the mayor confirmed he would press ahead with the £150 million part-pedestrianisation of Oxford Street after joking that he had secured “North Korean” levels of support from Londoners.
The changes will involve more of the road being closed to traffic than first thought - the eastern section between Oxford Circus and Great Portland Street, in front of the new Ikea store, in addition to the western section between Oxford Circus and the western edge of Selfridges.
But the Oxford Circus junction itself will not be pedestrianised as buses will continue to run north-south on Regent Street.
One-day closures of Regent Street were previously trialled by Ken Livingstone in his time as mayor between 2000 and 2008.
