Footfall rose 16% and spending 28% in the first week Oxford Street was shut to traffic, City Hall says. Bromley South is still about 33 minutes away.
Footfall on the traffic-free stretch of Oxford Street rose 16 per cent in its first week, and spending in shops rose 28 per cent, according to figures released by the Mayor of London on Monday 9 November. For shoppers in Bromley borough planning a Christmas trip into the West End, that means a busier street than last year, about 33 minutes from Bromley South.
The stretch between Orchard Street and Great Portland Street has been closed to private vehicles, buses, taxis, private hire cars, cycles, scooters and pedicabs since Monday 26 October. We covered how long the trip takes from each station in the borough when it shut.
What the first week showed
City Hall’s High Streets Data Service compared the first week, which fell in October half-term, with half-term week in 2025. On the pedestrianised section:
- footfall was up 16 per cent
- international visitors were up 42 per cent
- domestic visitors were up 14 per cent
- workers were up 1 per cent
- people stayed 5 per cent longer on average
Across the wider Oxford Street area, City Hall counted an average of 292,835 people a day between 26 and 31 October, up 9 per cent on the same days last year. Visits between 6pm and 6am were up 19 per cent.
What shops took
The spending figures come from the payments company Adyen and cover the Oxford Street stores in its like-for-like comparison. Spending there rose from about £2.9 million to £3.7 million year on year, and in-store transactions rose 19 per cent. The average transaction went up from £100 to £107. On nearby Regent Street, transactions rose by 1 per cent.
Some businesses on the street gave their own numbers. Dan Hills, chief executive of Market Halls, said footfall at its Oxford Street food hall was up 29 per cent year on year and sales up 25 per cent. “Oxford Street has evolved far beyond a traditional shopping street, with hospitality, leisure and culture playing a vital role in its enduring appeal,” he said.
Paul Crossey, managing director of the Jane Austen Experience, said: “This increase has been measurable for us, as we saw 27 per cent more visitors to the Jane Austen Experience in the first week of the traffic-free scheme.”
Busier stations
Transport for London recorded more people using Oxford Circus and Bond Street stations, which are the stops most Bromley shoppers will use. Nearly 200,000 entries and exits a day were recorded between Wednesday 28 and Friday 30 October, and Bond Street was up by more than 10 per cent from 28 October.
TfL’s pavement counters showed a bigger jump. West of Oxford Circus, the average weekday hourly count between 7am and 7pm rose from 6,523 before the closure to 9,751 in the first week, an increase of 49.5 per cent. Outside Bond Street station, footfall was up to 46 per cent above the September and October weekday average.
If you are coming from Bromley South, Penge East or Beckenham Junction, the train goes to Victoria and the Victoria line runs straight to Oxford Circus. From Orpington, Chislehurst and West Wickham, the quickest route is usually Charing Cross and the Bakerloo line.
Traffic and buses
TfL said early analysis found no significant overall change in traffic speeds on the roads around the closed section. On Wigmore Street, eastbound journeys were slightly faster and westbound slightly slower. Bus operators reported that services kept running well, with disruption linked to short-term local incidents. TfL said it would check full route performance data in the coming weeks.
Claire Mann, TfL’s chief operating officer, said: “A huge amount of work has gone into delivering this change, and as we continue to deliver further improvements to this new pedestrian space in the coming months, we will be closely monitoring these changes to make sure they are working for everyone.”
What the Mayor and the street’s backers said
Sadiq Khan said: “These are staggering early results that show the transformational impact that the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street will have. More people are coming to Oxford Street, more are visiting in the evening and shops are seeing more sales.”
He added: “With Christmas around the corner, I’d encourage Londoners and visitors to come and see what a traffic-free Oxford Street has to offer, whether you’re here to shop, meet friends or make an evening of it.”
Nabeel Khan, chief executive of the Oxford Street Development Corporation, said: “We are greatly encouraged by the early footfall and dwell time figures, which is showing the additional space to roam is proving attractive to visitors to the street.”
Dee Corsi, chief executive of the New West End Company, said Christmas “will be a crucial early test for pedestrianisation in practice”, and that its focus was “making sure Oxford Street is safe, clean, accessible and welcoming for visitors, while ensuring the practicalities work for West End businesses during the festive period.”
City Hall says this is the first stage of a phased programme, with little construction planned in the coming weeks to keep disruption down over Christmas. The figures cover one week, which was also half-term, so they say more about the novelty than about what a normal December will look like.
For the rail engineering weekends that affect trips from the borough before Christmas, see our Oxford Street travel guide from Bromley. The footfall figures are published through the High Streets Data Service on the London Datastore, and Retail Week reported the Adyen figures.
Have your say