Keep Oxford Street Open for Everyone

Your Voice, Your Neighbourhood

What the Oxford Street Plans Mean for the West End

Why every local community should be concerned

The Mayor’s proposals for Oxford Street are not simply a redesign of one road — they represent a fundamental reshaping of movement, servicing, licensing, planning powers and night-time activity across the entire West End. The impacts will be felt far beyond Oxford Street itself, affecting homes, businesses and neighbourhoods in Mayfair, Marylebone, Soho, Fitzrovia, Bloomsbury and Covent Garden.

Closing Oxford Street to traffic forces buses, taxis, delivery vans, HGVs and servicing vehicles to find alternative routes through the surrounding grid. At the same time, TfL and the GLA propose major traffic reversals, new bus stands, new servicing routes and a shift of night-time activity into residential areas. These changes alter how the entire West End works — its traffic flow, its safety, its noise environment, and its residential character.

And overshadowing all of this is the proposed Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC), which would remove Westminster councillors’ oversight and put a large part of the West End under the control of an unelected body whose role is to “accelerate growth” — primarily by expanding the 24-hour economy.

This is not simply a streetscape project. It is the most sweeping restructuring of the West End in decades.

The Mayor is rushing this through at pace because he knows that, if there is a change of administration in Westminster after the May elections, the Council intends to fight the proposal. The consultation ends in mid-January, and the Mayor intends to approve the new Corporation that will take over Oxford Street and the surrounding area in early January. He will then move ahead rapidly with his plans in order to ensure they are sufficiently advanced that a new Westminster administration cannot stop them.

Don't let him do this - join us today to stop it - before it is too late!

Join our Campaign

The Fight to Save London’s Iconic High Street

Oxford Street is the beating heart of London—an iconic shopping and business hub that serves millions of visitors, workers, and residents each year. But plans to pedestrianise Oxford Street threaten its future, risking job losses, increased congestion, and a decline in accessibility.

Closure brings with it many problems and difficulties - that many agencies have been struggling with for 55 years now, since closure was first proposed.

We believe in a better Oxford Street—one that balances the needs of shoppers, businesses, and transport users without shutting it down to traffic. We support the Westminster City Council scheme that took two years to develop, which residents and businesses agreed on.

Why We Oppose Pedestrianisation

A Single Change with West End–Wide Consequences

What these plans really mean

1. Traffic displacement into residential streets

With Oxford Street closed, displaced vehicles reappear on:

• Mayfair: Park Street, Green Street, North Audley Street, North Row

• Marylebone: Wigmore Street, Henrietta Place, Cavendish Square, Welbeck Street, Great Portland Street

• Soho: Poland Street, Great Marlborough Street, Noel Street

• Fitzrovia: Great Titchfield Street, Mortimer Street, Newman Street

The result is more congestion, noise, pollution and private hire vehicle (PHV) looping, as drivers search for exits made more complex by new one-way patterns and traffic reversals.

2. New bus stands and bus routes near homes

Routes curtailed at Oxford Street create new bus stands and waiting areas beside residential blocks in:

• Mayfair: North Row

• Marylebone: Wigmore Street edges

• Soho and Fitzrovia: Oxford Circus approaches

This brings noise, queues, engine idling and taxi clustering into previously quiet corners.

3. Servicing displacement and HGV pressure

Because Oxford Street can only be serviced between midnight and 7am, daytime deliveries shift onto dozens of side streets across the West End — many of them narrow, historic or unsuitable for heavy vehicles. These streets were never designed for HGV volumes.

4. A dramatic expansion of the night-time economy

The GLA’s After Dark proposals identify the Oxford Street zone as a priority area for intensified night-time activity. Extending licensing hours and encouraging late-opening venues risks turning residential streets into late-night spill-out and dispersal zones for a 24-hour entertainment district.

5. A loss of local democratic control

The proposed Oxford Street Mayoral Development Corporation would:

• remove planning powers from Westminster councillors

• override local policies on licensing, transport, public realm and amenity

• direct public funding through an unelected board charged with “growth,” not resident wellbeing

And once created, the MDC could expand — placing more of the West End beyond accountable local decision-making.

Why This Matters to Everyone in the West End — and Beyond

Even if your street is not directly adjacent to Oxford Street, the effects ripple outward:

• Traffic displaced from one area enters another — often into streets never meant to carry it.

• Servicing restrictions in one place create pressure elsewhere.

• If one neighbourhood loses democratic control, others can follow.

• If Oxford Street becomes a 24-hour zone, Soho, Fitzrovia and Marylebone absorb the overflow.

West End communities share a common interest in resisting a single plan that affects them all.

Better Oxford Street: A West End–Wide Campaign

Better Oxford Street is an organisation that was formed in 2017 to fight the previous pedestrianisation scheme. It brought together and coordinated amenity societies and residents’ groups from across the West End to provide:

• in-depth scrutiny

• shared research and evidence

• public information

• a united response to common challenge

Better Oxford Street has a proven record of success. In 2018, with its coordinated action it enabled the community to stop the Mayor and TfL’s first attempt to pedestrianise Oxford Street. We can stop this version too — but only if we act together, and act now.

A new West End-wide coalition of central London amenity societies has now formed specifically to challenge the Oxford Street / MDC proposals—and Better Oxford Street will again coordinate their efforts.

If you want to help defend Mayfair, Marylebone, Soho, Fitzrovia and the wider West End from the Mayor’s damaging plans, please support the campaign and join today.

But this time, the threat is far more serious.

The Mayor has removed the democratic route by shifting powers to an unelected corporation. Instead of allowing residents to make their views known at the ballot box, he intends to hand control of Oxford Street — and the area surrounding it — to a small, unelected board of business appointees through a Mayoral Development Corporation.

That leaves only one remaining route to challenge the scheme: the courts.

A legal challenge is possible — but it will only succeed if the West End community stands behind it. And time is running out.

Join the Campaign

We need your support to ensure Oxford Street remains a vibrant, accessible, and thriving part of London. Sign our petition, spread the word, and help us protect the future of one of the world’s most famous streets.

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Together, we can create a Better Oxford Street—without shutting it down!

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