London’s Oxford Street sees footfall up 16% and international visitors up 42% in first traffic-free week

City Hall on Monday (November 9) published official first-week figures for pedestrianised Oxford Street: footfall on the nearly one-kilometre stretch between Orchard Street and Great Portland Street rose 16 percent on the October 2025 half-term, and international visitor numbers rose 42 percent. Payments company Adyen reported in-store spending of £3.7 million, up 28 percent year on year from £2.9 million, with transactions up 19 percent. Mayor Sadiq Khan said the results exceeded the most optimistic expectations. (Image: file photo of Oxford Street.)

Official figures confirm the payments data

This is the first complete first-week dataset from City Hall and the Oxford Street Development Corporation. The footfall and international visitor figures are new; the spending and transaction figures match the first-week data Adyen published last week, confirming a clear lift in trade in the opening week. The mayor said the early work had been very warmly received by Londoners and visitors, with a surge in footfall and spend that showed the transformational impact pedestrianisation would have.

Nearly a kilometre closed to traffic in a £150m scheme

Since October 26, cars, buses, taxis, private cars, bicycles and e-scooters have been banned from almost a kilometre of Oxford Street, as part of a £150 million regeneration scheme aimed at drawing more visitors and reviving a shopping street whose recovery since the pandemic has lagged the wider West End. Economists at the Greater London Authority estimate pedestrianisation could add up to £82 million a year to the local economy and support more than 700 new jobs. The scheme is backed by major retailers including Selfridges and John Lewis; shop deliveries are now restricted to between midnight and 7 a.m.

Temporary scheme, permanent layout due by 2027

The current ban is temporary while the authorities gather usage data and public feedback and design a permanent layout, due to be settled by November 2027; by spring 2027 the street will gain more than 50 trees, two public squares and more than 100 seats and tables. The first week also brought teething problems: some cyclists and e-bike riders kept entering the zone and police had to ask them to dismount, and on one Friday evening hundreds of riders took to the streets to protest the ban.