Oxford Street London

Oxford Street in the City of Westminster derives its name from the 17th century history when it existed as a westwards route of the City of London leading to Oxford. One of the busiest shopping destinations on the globe, the area attracts circa 200 million shoppers due to over 300 shops in its heart.

The street started to develop in the 20th century as a shopping destination when for the first time, the furnishings specialists called Waring and Gillow opened its doors in 1906. Over the time, the street started representing the hub for West End shopping of London stretching from almost a mile and a half from Marble Arch going through Oxford Circus to St. Giles’ Circus, at the junction with Charing Cross Road and Tottenham Road. There is the only pub called ‘The Tottenham’ on the Oxford Street opposite to the Tottenham tube station. For those who are on a leisure trip to London, Oxford Street is an ideal place to stay in London because of its numerous apparel stores, record shops, department stores and a huge variety of Oxford Circus Hotels. The street is filled with colorful shopping windows. Though offering a huge choice of outlets to shop from, Oxford Street does not offer fashionable or expensive shopping opportunities. This may one of the reasons that make the area so crowded.

Oxford Street also enjoys the pride of being the focal point on festivals like Christmas because of its lighting traditions. Thousands of festive lights illuminate the street giving it a spirit of Christmas. This turns out to be a heavily publicized ceremony that starts from mid November and goes on till 6th January. It is also renowned for a number of celebrity promotions and launches.

Plans were announced in the year 2005 to transform Oxford Street to a pedestrian heaven from presently existing traffic logged condition. There have been proposals to end up the feature of gridlock thereby closing the street for the traffic and even buses entirely. There area also plans to build a mono rail stretching from one end to another in order to transport people. The critics have also mentioned in this regard that the only shoppers who are too lazy will be catered to by the monorail. However, the purpose is being solved by the tube as well.
Whatever may be the development policies, the travelers to London surely have a great time on the Oxford Street with a lot of wonders stored up.

The Wonder at the Oxford Street London