Oxford Street. Which people get the street back?
Oxford Street's pedestrianisation is sold as giving the street back to the people. The question is which people: the Londoners who live around it, or the visitors who come to spend?
THE GIST ON OXFORD STREET: "No Through City"
Why did the street need to work for Londoners?
For as long as Oxford Street had everyday utility for local people, it had to function as a street. The shops needed bus routes that brought their customers to them. Taking those routes away meant taking away a way of doing ordinary errands.
Then those errands went online. A Londoner giving you advice about Oxford Street is increasingly likely to tell you to avoid it. That changes the incentives of the place.
Who does the centre now serve?
The customers left are increasingly visitors. They are there to do one thing: spend. The people who live in London commute in to run a centre that caters to somebody else.
Pedestrianisation is sold as giving the street back to the people. But the question is, which people? A street can become more pleasant for a visitor while becoming less useful to the person who once relied on it.
What happens when a city is built around visitors?
Look at the relationship between London's ability to accommodate its residents and the people it caters to. As tourism becomes the focus, living in the city becomes harder for the Londoners who make it work.
A vibrant living city is what people come to see. When you build a city for the visitor, the thing they come to visit starts to die. You cannot drive through Disneyland either, but you only go there every few years. A city has to do another job for the people who are there every day.
Who should lead the street's design?
Your take. One tap, then see how everyone else voted.
Quick answers
What is Huw questioning about pedestrianisation?
Who it is designed to serve, and whether making the area more attractive to visitors makes it less useful to residents.
Why do online errands matter to the argument?
They reduce the everyday reasons local people need Oxford Street's shops and transport connections, changing whose spending the area depends on.
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