How will the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street benefit retail in the UK?

In the last few months, London Mayor Sadiq Khan announced that the city will be pushing ahead with long-discussed plans to pedestrianise Oxford Street. Long regarded as the shopping hub of the capital, Oxford Street has suffered in recent years with a number of retailers closing their doors on the historic street citing rising rent costs and falling levels of footfall. So could pedestrianisation revitalise the street, what are the barriers to potential success and could the success of the scheme lead to more pedestrianisation elsewhere?

What benefits will the move have?

The first and most obvious benefit of pedestrianisation is that it will make the area more attractive to pedestrians. Oxford Street is a notoriously busy street with somewhat narrow pavements which can put off a number of potential shoppers from wanting to spend too much time on the street, which can have a knock on effect for retailers. As Jenni Matthews, head of marketing for MRI Software, explains, pedestrianisation should increase dwell time for visitors to Oxford Street and if people spend more time on the street they are more likely to visit more shops and potentially spend money in them. Alongside this, an absence of traffic should improve the air quality and overall atmosphere of the street making it a more inviting place for pedestrians to spend time.

Another positive aspect of pedestrianisation is that it will make the street safer for pedestrians, especially in light of recent horrific incidents in London and Germany where a vehicle was used as a weapon towards a crowd of people. Pedestrination means less cars but also means that authorities can set up hostile vehicle mitigation (HVM) infrastructure like bollards and barriers to make the threat of this less likely. Away from attacks, the lack of traffic will overall make the street safer.

“People feel safer with no vehicle access, leading them to visit high streets more frequently. Coffee shops and restaurants, for example, can offer al fresco dining, attracting more customers and supporting business growth. This creates a more vibrant atmosphere and positively impacts the local economy,” says Debbie Heald MBE, managing director at Heald a company which specialises in HVM solutions.

Furthermore, the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street will offer retailers more space to introduce new brand activations which will aim to increase footfall in the area, hopefully increasing the amount people are willing to spend. Matthews points to Times Square as a great example of where pedestrianisation has allowed brands more freedom to get creative. Matthews believes that pedestrianisation will allow Oxford Street to be seen as more of a destination to visit rather than just a retail destination and could lead to a virtuous cycle where brands have more space and freedom to do creative activations and pop-ups, which could increase footfall and spend, which could then lead to more brands feeling confident in doing activations and pop-ups and so on and so on.

Should London be looking to make Oxford Street its own Times Square?

Times Square is a very good example of how pedestrianisation can be achieved successfully to the benefit of businesses, locals and tourists alike. It is also a very pertinent comparison to Oxford Street as New York and London are fairly similar cities with lots of tourists but also lots of local traffic. Times Square is also a major hub for brand activations, from its huge advertising screens to its large open spaces.

For example, in 2020 Coca Cola launched an activation in Times Square as part of its “Share an Ice Cold Coca-Cola” campaign. Alongside Set Creative, the brand put a giant, red interactive sculpture in Time Square, including the iconic bottle and red crates, inviting visitors to enjoy a Coke from the icebox incorporated in the sculpture. Water misters were embedded in the sculpture coordinated with content on the 3D billboard. Animations and effervescence on the screen directed attention back to street level, including a pixelated countdown that cued the water misters in the sculptures to refresh the crowd. Set Creative claimed that 360,000 people walked past the experience during the hours it was live and their social postings reached over 2 million people.

Away from activations, Times Square also offers a good blueprint on how to actually introduce pedestrianisation in a place that is very busy with traffic. Matthews explains that there were early concerns around congestion on surrounding streets, and business resistance, but that was mitigated through phased planning and phased implementation. Alongside the phased implementation, the team carrying out the transformation involved stakeholders in decision making. She believes that if the people working on the Oxford Street scheme take a similar approach then the scheme is more likely to be a success.

What could stop the scheme from being a success?

There are two main things that could prevent the scheme from having the desired effect. The first and most obvious is traffic. Oxford Street is a busy thoroughfare and has a number of bus routes that go along it, meaning that careful planning will be needed to ensure that buses and cars which travel through the street are redirected in a way that is not too disruptive to the surrounding area. The worst case scenario is that all Oxford Street traffic is shoved onto the surrounding streets, massively increasing congestion there.

However, concerns from retailers on the street are likely to be around logistics, specifically around how they will get their stores stocked if large lorries or couriers can no longer drive down the street. Serhat Kyuchuk-Pakyuz co-founder and CEO of RideLogix, thinks that the proposed pedestrianisation of Camden High Street offers a good solution to this issue as it will allow bicycles into the pedestrian zone. Under the current plans for Oxford Street e-cargo bikes will be forced onto side streets, potentially making surrounding areas more congested. Kyuchuk-Pakyuz would like to see the plans become more bike friendly, either allowing bikes to enter the street at certain times of day or creating designated bike lanes. This is a good example of why it will be important for those charged with implementing the scheme to ensure that stakeholders are considered before committing to any solutions.

Could a successful implementation lead to more pedestrianisation elsewhere?

Looking ahead, there is a feeling that the Oxford Street scheme could be important for the future of pedestrianisation across London and the UK more broadly. If the scheme is a success then it will show authorities elsewhere around the country that pedestrianisation is something that people want and there will be data to prove that it can benefit retailers and the economy in general.However, it is imperative that those involved in implementing the scheme get it right. If they rush things or cut corners and the scheme fails then it will likely be a death knell to other similar schemes around the country.

Overall, pedestrianisation can offer a solution to a number of ills that have befallen the British high street. Oxford Street will be the most high profile example in the country and will be used to argue for or against pedestrianisation in other areas. If it is implemented well then it will likely be copied, if it is done poorly then it is unlikely that it will be implemented elsewhere, which will be a detriment to both retail and hospitality businesses alike.