CAPITAL WATCH

By Alistair Parker , Head, Retail Development Agency – London alistair.parker @eur.cushwake.com Oxford Street PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE Oxford street used to be know as Tyburn road John Lewis first opened as a little drapery shop in Oxford Street Oxford Circus station and Bond Street station was built 1700s 1864 1900 Marshall & Snelgrove opened its store in Oxford street The City’s historic status as the most expensive office location was overtaken by the West End 1851 1900s 36 PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE T welve months ago, and after nearly 15 years of studies and strategies, the Mayor of London announced that the world’s premier shopping street – serving an estimated visitor number of 240 million per year (2021) – was to be pedestrianised. This, the Greater London Authority (GLA) suggested, would address its future shopping success, traffic casualties, unacceptable pavement overcrowding and the world’s worst NO2 pollution level. Then – in May of this year – Westminster City Council backed out, citing the opposition of local people. TfL advised that 14,377 people responded to the Phase 1 plan consultation and 4,739 people objected to the proposal. The City Council contended that 61% of ‘Westminster residents’ did not support the partial pedestrianisation of Oxford Street. The City Council have now tabled an alternative plan that will “transform the Oxford Street district into a global, iconic destination” with a “coherent and district-wide solution” through a “place-based strategy” - which appears to centre on modest pavement An uncertain future extensions by losing some bus bays (www.osd.london ). It was the 2008 Royal Assent to the Crossrail Bill that finally prompted the statutory authorities to act, when early estimates – possibly framed to encourage the government to fund the new Elizabeth Line – forecast an extra 155-220,000 visits per day at Bond Street station (up 57%) and 150-200,000 extra at Tottenham Court Road (up 81%) by 2021. Crossrail will bypass the Oxford Circus station, as it was acknowledged from the very outset that it couldn’t handle the traffic. TfL’s entry/exit figures for last year reported weekday traffic at Bond Street at 60,000-61,000 per weekday and Oxford Circus at 121,000-136,000 per day – about 40 million a year at Bond Street, 41 million at Tottenham Court Road and 84 million at Oxford Circus. Crossrail obviously involves acres of expert documents, including forecast station user levels. Pedestrian density is delightfully measured with Fruin’s Levels of Service criteria, with the recommended minimum ‘comfortable level’ being 11-17 pedestrians per minute per metre per effective width of footway. The ‘very uncomfortable’ level – Only 27 per cent of Oxford Street’s jobs are in retail, with 45 per cent in professional offices perhaps recognisable as pavement shuffling – is set at 35+. The expert reports appear to suggest the stations may suffer from a forecasted 46 pedestrians/min/m. Indeed, one reads that Bond Street station footway will require 15m – “nearly the whole carriageway”. The West End Company, amongst others, contends that the current overcrowding is on a par with Asian streets. A recent survey (BNP Paribas 2017) found Oxford Street had the highest pedestrian flows in global cities, followed closely by Munich and then Madrid, Frankfurt and Paris at about three quarters of the flow. Incidentally, the Oxford Street flow was lower than found in early 1970s surveys. Palaces of consumption With 4,529,000 sq ft of retail floorspace arranged along 1.3 miles in 471 units, Oxford Street has massive scale. Today, that offer includes 1,963,000 sq ft of department stores, including the iconic Selfridges and the authoritative John Lewis. Before the demise of the Peter Robinson store (now Nike & Topshop) and Bourne & Hollingsworth (ex Plaza shopping centre), department stores used to compose about half the shopping space. Most of the great store edifices were built between 1851 and 1937 – led by Marshall & Snelgrove (now Debenhams), followed by DH Evans (now House of Fraser) and lastly John Lewis. It was these great ‘palaces of consumption’ that established Oxford Street as the premier retail offer for the burgeoning middle classes. Before the mid-1800s, Oxford Street was a complex mix of stables, theatres, shops with attendant workshops, music halls, furniture makers, bazaars, coach builders, a covered market and residential housing thronged by street traders, prostitutes and folk of ill repute. Previously known as the Tyburn Road, street development only reached Park Lane in 1780. At the start of the 19th century, it was a major thoroughfare in a relatively compact city with 860,000 people. That grew to 2.8 million by 1860, making it the largest city in the world. The development of the West End reflected the drift of fashionable society out of the City of London, first served by retailers moving, particularly after the Great Fire of 1666, Oxford Circus was rebuilt in 1906 for the Bakerloo line The pavements were widened, as part of the Oxford Street Improvement Scheme The City Council are working on a plan that will ‘transform the Oxford Street district into a global, iconic destination’ The BNP Paribas 2017 survey found Oxford Street had the highest pedestrian flows in global cities 1906 1972 2018 2017 37 PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD

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