CAPITAL WATCH

from Cheapside to Covent Garden, the Strand and Holborn, serving the grand new housing. After the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), the renewed economy prompted the development of Mayfair and Fitzrovia, followed by the Bedford and Portman estates. Similarly, the end of the Napoleonic wars in 1815 encouraged the wholesale development of Belgravia and Pimlico, together with the scheme to create Regent Street (1820). The latter was London’s first planned shopping street as well as its earliest comprehensive compulsory purchase order, acting partly as an employment initiative for unemployed soldiery. By the end of the 19th century, Oxford Street had become almost wholly retail but remained “less fashionable than Regent Street, because further from the court and courtly influences, and less devoted to pleasure than the Strand, owing to its greater distance from the theatres, it has always preserved the happy medium of respectability” (Edward Walford ‘Old and New London: V0l 4’. 1878). As ever, the extension of retail had been led by destination attractions: theatres, concert halls, shopping arcades and bazaars. Bazaars, the early forerunners of the shopping centre, were smart market halls for fashionable goods arranged in stalls. The earliest (and perhaps most successful) was the Soho Bazaar (1816) on Greek Street, but Oxford Street had the Royal Bazaar (1828, then rebuilt as the Princess’s Theatre and now USC/Sports Direct), Crystal Palace (1858) and Pantheon (1834). The last was originally built as assembly rooms for balls, masquerades and operas in 1770. Today the site is home to Marks & Spencer’s 120,000 sq ft listed Art Deco store (1938). Opportunities for change? The key problem for large buildings was site assembly. Three of the bazaars were built on former stables. Today’s Marks & Spencer Marble Arch flagship store substantially lies on the former site of the Portman Cavalry Barracks. Site assembly for the development of the Bourne & Hollingsworth store required over 30 site interests including “a chapel, brothel, cigarette factory and a nest of Polish tailors”. Indeed, it is remarkable how little large-scale retail development has happened on the street in the 110 years since Gordon Selfridge laboriously assembled the site for his revolutionary department store. Perhaps the only notable example of retail expansion was the 60,000 sq ft involved in MEPC’s rebuilding of Bond Street station (West One 1981) to accommodate the Jubilee Line. The Bond Street station is one of the three critical transport hubs that underpin the Street. It was first built in 1900 as part of the Central London Railway from Bayswater to the City (Central line), and was initially opposed by the landowner, the Duke of Westminster, who was later persuaded it would improve his estate – then also comprising large chunks along Oxford Street which he had largely rebuilt over 1865-90. Oxford Circus, originally built in 1900 for the Central line, was rebuilt in 1906 for the Bakerloo Line, rebuilt in 1912 to relieve congestion, again in 1923 and then once more in 1968 for the Victoria Line in an ever more complex underground geometry. Today it is the fourth busiest station in the UK. With about 75 per cent of shoppers arriving by public transport, the capacity of the Tube and buses to deliver users appears vital. And TfL has recently reduced bus services by 40% to reduce impact on what is said to be one of the most dangerous and polluted roads in London. The Bond Street station is one of the three critical transport hubs that underpin the Street Beyond retail Yet Oxford Street is not just about shops. Only 27 per cent of Oxford Street’s jobs are in retail, with 45 per cent in professional offices. The street’s future rests on office employment, catering and services together with key cultural or entertainment attractions. Unlike the days of Oxford Street past, the current leisure, entertainment and cultural offer is limited. The eastern end still has the 100 Club, originally started in 1942 at 100 Oxford Street as a jazz club. It also has the famed 2,200-seat Dominion Theatre, built as a cinema in 1928 on the site of a former brewery. Most of the key destinations are just off Oxford Street: the most famed is probably the London Palladium, originally built as a rival shopping offer to the Pantheon bazaar before becoming a circus and then an ice skating rink. It was then redeveloped, in 1910, as a theatre designed by the legendary Frank Matcham. Today As ever, the extension of retail had been led by destination attractions; by theatres, concert halls, shopping arcades and bazaars it remains an iconic 2,300-seat venue and host, apparently, to the ashes of Bruce Forsyth. Another notable offer is the 545-seat Wigmore Hall, the ‘grand dame of concert halls’ built by the German company Bechstein in 1901. From its earliest days, Wigmore Street had specialised in piano manufacturers, opticians, coachbuilders and fine fashion. However, Bechstein’s concert hall was confiscated during the first World War, and was subsequently acquired at auction by Debenhams to facilitate improvements to their grand new store on Wigmore Street (1916) – before they merged with Marshall & Snelgrove and consolidated on Oxford Street. The final major attraction is the Wallace Collection, housed in Manchester Square’s Hertford House – built in 1788 reportedly because of the fine duck shooting then available in the locality. The works collected by five generations of the Hertford family were bequeathed to the nation in 1897 and the museum opened in 1900. CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD 38 PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE 39 PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE