Early history

Oxford Street follows the route of a Roman road, the Via Trinobantina, which linked Calleva Atrebatum (near Silchester, Hampshire) with Camulodunum (now Colchester) via London and became one of the major routes in and out of the city.[1]

Between the 12th century and 1782, it was variously known as Tyburn Road (after the River Tyburn that crossed it north to south), Uxbridge Road (the name still used for the road between Shepherd's Bush and Uxbridge), Worcester Road and Oxford Road.[2] Tyburn, near where Marble Arch now stands, was a place of public execution from 1388 to 1783 and a set of gallows stood here.[3] On Ralph Aggas' "Plan of London", published in the 16th century, the road is described partly as "The Waye to Uxbridge" followed by "Oxford Road", showing rural farmland at the present junction of Oxford Street and Rathbone Place. By 1678 it was known as the "King's Highway", and the "Road To Oxford" by 1682.[4][5]

The Georgian era  Oxford Street in the late 18th century (with the Pantheon on the left).

Though a major coaching route, there were several obstacles along it, including the bridge over the Tyburn. A turnpike trust was established in the 1730s to improve upkeep of the road.[2] It became notorious as the route taken by prisoners on their final journey from Newgate Prison to the gallows at Tyburn. Spectators jeered as the prisoners were carted along the road, and could buy rope used in the executions from the hangman in taverns.[6] By about 1729, the road had become known as Oxford Street.[4]

Development began in the 18th century after many surrounding fields were purchased by the Earl of Oxford.[6] In 1739, a local gardener, Thomas Huddle, built property on the north side.[7] After Lord Oxford's death the estate was inherited by his daughter the Duchess of Portland; it then passed down to successive dukes as the Portland Estate, before becoming the Howard de Walden Estate in 1879 (by way of the 5th Duke's sister).[8] The Howard de Walden Estate progressively sold off its Oxford Street holdings (which lay on the north side between Marylebone Lane and Wells Street) in the first half of the twentieth century.[9] Other landowning estates held sway over the western end of Oxford Street: most of the northern side west of Duke Street was and is owned by the Portman Estate;[10] while facing it (on the southern side) most of the land west of Davies Street was and is part of the Grosvenor estate.[11] John Rocque's Map of London, published in 1746, shows urban buildings as far as North Audley Street (on the south side) and Marylebone Lane (on the north side), but only intermittent rural property beyond. Further development to the west occurred between 1763 and 1793, when building began on the Portman Estate.[12]

The Pantheon, a place for public entertainment, opened at No. 173 in 1772.[7] The street became popular for entertainment including bear-baiters, theatres and public houses.[13] However, it was not attractive to the middle and upper classes due to the nearby Tyburn gallows and the notorious St Giles rookery, or slum.[6] The gallows were removed in 1783, and by the end of the century, Oxford Street was built up from St Giles Circus to Park Lane, containing a mix of residential houses, shops and places of entertainment.[6][7]

Oxford Circus was designed as part of the development of Regent Street by the architect John Nash in 1810. It was later rebuilt (the four quadrants of the circus as seen today were designed by Sir Henry Tanner and constructed between 1913 and 1928).[14]

The Pantheon closed as an entertainment venue in 1814 (twenty years later it was reopened as a covered bazaar); this prompted another bazaar (across the road at No. 150) to close, and in 1836 the Princess's Theatre opened on the site.[7]

Retail and transport development  Oxford Street in 1875 (looking towards the present-day site of Selfridges on the right).

Oxford Street changed in character from residential to retail towards the end of the 18th century.[15] Recording an evening visit to the street in 1786, Sophie von La Roche described a multitude of shops lit by Argand lamps behind 'handsome glass windows': confectioners, fruiterers, watchmakers, silversmiths, 'spirit booths' (selling strong drink), glass shops, china shops, silk shops, lamp shops and others.[15] There were also clothing retailers of various sorts, and furniture-makers (such as Gillow & Co., established in 1769). Street vendors sold tourist souvenirs during this time.[7]

A plan in Tallis's London Street Views, published in the late 1830s, remarks that almost all the street, save for the far western end, was primarily retail.[2] Peter Robinson opened his draper's shop at 103 Oxford Street in the 1830s; by the 1890s the shop had expanded to fill the entire block between Great Portland Street and Regent Street.[16] Likewise Marshall & Snelgrove opened on Vere Street in 1837; within 40 years it had expanded to fill the entire block between that street and Marylebone Lane, and was housed (from 1870) in a new building designed by Horace Jones and Octavius Hansard.

 Marshall & Snelgrove's department store building of 1870.

What would now be called department stores began to appear on Oxford Street in the 1870s (the rebuilt Marshall & Snelgrove being one of the first).[15] John Lewis started in 1864 in small shop at No. 132;[17] he took on an adjacent property in 1878, and over the next twenty years expanded further and began rebuilding.[18] Dan Harries Evans opened a small draper's shop at No. 147 in 1879; as D H Evans the business swiftly expanded, taking in more than a dozen properties either side of Old Cavendish Street and becoming one of London's largest drapery establishments by the mid-1890s.[19] At the same time, smaller independent retailers continued to thrive alongside their larger counterparts, specialising in all sorts of different goods, trades and services.[15]

Meanwhile, construction of the Central London Railway (now the Central line of the London Underground), which runs under Oxford Street for part of its course, began in 1896, which necessitated the development of four new station buildings on or near the street, at Marble Arch, Bond Street, Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road. Of the three chief engineers of the project, only Benjamin Baker lived to see the railway completed. On 27 June 1900, the Prince of Wales (who became King Edward VII the following year) ceremonially opened the line and public services began on 30 July. The line's route below Oxford Street made it the first railway to provide a direct service to the theatre and shopping areas of the West End and the City.[20] The Bakerloo line came to Oxford Circus on 10 March 1906, and the Hampstead line to Tottenham Court Road on 22 June 1907 (it became the Northern line thirty years later).[21]

 Former Waring & Gillow store of 1906 ('United Kingdom House').

Development continued through the first half of the 20th century, with Bourne & Hollingsworth opening in 1902. When Waring & Gillow opened their new store in 1906 it became the first West End store to occupy an entire city block.[22] Selfridges opened on 15 March 1909 at No. 400;[23] it promptly had a 'transformative influence on Britain's retail scene, elevating the concept of a department store as a social and cultural institution open to everyone, with innovative window dressing, exceptional customer service and masterly advertising'.[24] Shoemakers Lilley & Skinner acquired the lease of 358–360 Oxford Street in 1914;[25] they later expanded into Nos. 356–366, reputedly becoming the world's largest shoe store in 1921.[26] In 1922 C&A purchased Nos. 376–384 (before long C&A had three stores on Oxford Street, which remained the case until their withdrawal from the UK market in 2001).[25]

It is notable that all the aforementioned department stores were or are on the north side of the street. Whether this was down to a preference for south-facing shop fronts, or there being better access routes to the north for deliveries and services, or something akin to coincidence remains an open question.[15] Some large stores were opened on the south side of the street in the 20th century: Woolworths opened its first West End store at No. 311 in 1925,[27] followed by a handful of others in the 1930s (for example Littlewoods, which opened its first Central London store at Nos. 207–213 in 1937, later expanding into Nos. 197–205; it was rebuilt in the early 1960s but closed in the early 2000s).[28]

 Hereford House of 1928–1930: flats and department store on the south side of the Street (Primark, formerly C&A).

By the 1930s the street was almost entirely retail, a state that still obtains today. However, unlike nearby streets such as Bond Street and Park Lane, there remained a seedy element including street traders and prostitutes.[29] Gradually, as the century progressed, the independent retailers began to be replaced by chain stores.

 Bomb-damaged shell of John Lewis following an air raid, September 1940.

During the Second World War, Oxford Street was bombed several times. Overnight and in the early hours of 17 to 18 September 1940, 268 Heinkel He 111 and Dornier Do 17 bombers targeted the West End, particularly Oxford Street. Many buildings were damaged, either from direct hits or subsequent fires, including four department stores: John Lewis, Selfridges, Bourne & Hollingsworth and Peter Robinson. George Orwell wrote in his diary for 24 September that Oxford Street was "completely empty of traffic, and only a few pedestrians", and saw "innumerable fragments of broken glass".[30] John Lewis caught fire again on 25 September and was reduced to a shell. It remained a bomb site for the remainder of the war and beyond, finally being demolished and rebuilt between 1958 and 1960. Peter Robinson partially reopened on 22 September, though the main storefront remained boarded up. The basement was converted into studios for the BBC Eastern Service. Orwell made several broadcasts here from 1941 to 1943.[30]

Selfridges was bombed again on 17 April 1941, suffering further damage, including the destruction of the Palm Court Restaurant. The basement was converted to a communications base, with a dedicated line run along Oxford Street to Whitehall allowing British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to make secure and direct telephone calls to the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The store was damaged again on 6 December 1944 after a V2 rocket exploded on nearby Duke Street, causing its Christmas tree displays to collapse into the street outside. Damage was repaired, and the shop reopened the following day.[30]

Post-war  The rebuilt John Lewis, with its Winged Figure sculpture by Barbara Hepworth.

After its main store was destroyed, John Lewis operated from properties on the other side of Holles Street (i.e. to the east) until the completion of its new store to the west. Relinquishing these properties then enabled it to purchase the whole of the west site.[9] Subsequently the entire block between Holles Street and John Prince's Street was sold by the Howard de Walden Estate to Land Securities for redevelopment: designed by T. P. Bennett & Partners, it would provide small units of retail accommodation either side of a central flagship department store (namely British Home Stores, until its closure in 2016). Atop the Oxford Street frontage a six-storey block was constructed to house the London College of Fashion, behind which a cluster of taller tower blocks provided office space. Begun in 1959 the work was largely completed within two years; it was one of the largest post-war redevelopment projects to be undertaken in the West End.[9]

From August 1963 until April 1968 part of Oxford Street had to be closed to traffic so that Oxford Circus tube station could be rebuilt to incorporate the new Victoria line, which began serving the station on 7 March 1969, its official opening.[31]

 1960s office/retail complex fronted by the London College of Fashion.

In September 1973 a shopping-bag bomb was detonated by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) at the offices of the Prudential Assurance Company, injuring six people.[32] A second bomb was detonated by the IRA next to Selfridges in December 1974, injuring three people and causing £1.5 million worth of damage.[33] Oxford Street was again targeted by the IRA in August 1975; an undiscovered bomb that had been booby trapped exploded without any injuries.[34] On 26 October 1981 Kenneth Howorth, an explosives officer with the Metropolitan Police, was killed while defusing a bomb planted by the IRA in the basement toilet of a Wimpy Bar on Oxford Street.[35] The IRA also detonated a bomb at the John Lewis department store in December 1992, along with another in nearby Cavendish Square, injuring four people.[36]

 Stanley Green advertising on Oxford Street in 1974

The human billboard Stanley Green began selling on Oxford Street in 1968, advertising his belief in the link of proteins to sexual libido and the dangers therein. He regularly patrolled the street with a placard headlined "less passion from less protein",[29] and advertised his pamphlet Eight Passion Proteins with Care until his death in 1993. His placards are now housed in the British Museum.[37]

 The Plaza shopping centre (ex-Bourne & Hollingsworth) in 2011.

The opening of Britain's first out-of-town shopping centre at Brent Cross in 1976 prompted experiments with mall-style shopping precincts on Oxford Street. West One was developed by the Grosvenor Estate on the corner of Davies Street as part of the rebuilding of Bond Street tube station for the Jubilee line in 1979; it opened the following year.[38] In 1986 The Plaza shopping centre was opened within the walls of the former Bourne & Hollingsworth department store building (dating from 1925–1928), the latter having closed three years earlier.[39] The Plaza itself closed in 2016 and a flagship Next store was opened on the site.[40]

COVID pandemic changes

The principal Topshop store by Oxford Circus shut in late 2020 after its parent company, Arcadia Group went into administration. A year later, following the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, the Government introduced new lockdown restrictions, which caused problems with businesses along Oxford Street, which had been hampered by the pandemic since the previous year. An analyst at GlobalData said the street "has been forever changed by the closure, or in some cases, downsizing of long-standing department stores".[41] The House of Fraser store closed in January 2022 as a result.[42]

New Oxford Street  James Smith & Sons has been at 53 New Oxford Street since 1867.

New Oxford Street was built in 1847, in accordance with a plan of James Pennethorne, to link the eastern end of Oxford Street with High Holborn.[15] It extends the axis of Oxford Street eastwards from St Giles Circus. Previously, the route into the City of London had deviated southwards at this point, to skirt around the ancient settlement of St Giles with its leper hospital. The building of the new street involved much slum clearance, but did not entirely eradicate the notorious old rookeries. Once a fashionable shopping street, a preponderance of office buildings has led to New Oxford Street no longer sharing the activity or ambience of its namesake; but in its central section a number of original 1840s stuccoed buildings have survived, providing a glimpse of its former character.[43]

Centre Point, at the corner of New Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road, was one of London's first skyscrapers; it was designed by property developer Harry Hyams and opened in 1966. It failed to find a suitable tenant and remained empty for many years before being occupied by squatters who used it as a centre of protest against the lack of suitable accommodation in central London. In 2015, building work began to convert it into residential flats, with development expected to finish in 2017.[44]