Oxford Street

Whilst avoiding pre-Christmas London like the plague these days, my thoughts nevertheless turn at this time of year to memories of childhood trips to Oxford Street, everyone’s favourite retail destination before the arrival of the Bluewaters and Westfields of this world! Of course, now that my purchases can be ordered and delivered to my door 7 days a week at the click of a mouse, it seems unlikely that I will avail myself of Oxford Street’s festive charms again any time soon! But the place does have an interesting history, worth writing a few lines about…

Forming part of the route of an ancient Roman road from Suffolk to Hampshire, Oxford Street has for many centuries been one of two main roads leading west out of London. It runs 1.2 miles east-west between Tottenham Court Road and Marble Arch, intersecting Regent Street along the way. It has been known variously down the ages as ‘The Waye to Uxbridge’, the ‘King’s Highway’, and ‘Tyburn Way’ (after the Tyburn river which runs underneath it), finally becoming Oxford Street in the 18th century. It was so named, not because it led to Oxford (which it did!), but because the land adjoining it was owned by the 1st Earl of Oxford, Robert Harley.

A famous, or rather infamous landmark, along Oxford Street was the ‘Tyburn Tree’ set in green fields near the present Marble Arch. In use as early as the 12^th century, it remained London’s principal location for public hangings until 1783. By the late 1500s a permanent structure had been erected from which up to 21 convicts could be suspended simultaneously.

The gallows at Tyburn

Watching people being strung up was, of course, a popular spectator sport in these times. In 1668, Samuel Pepys records going with a friend to Tyburn to watch an execution, and being disappointed that he had “come too late, it being done; two men and a woman hanged.”
Until the 17^th century there were virtually no buildings at all on either Piccadilly or Oxford Street. In the early 1700s Oxford Street began to be built up at its eastern end; by the end of the 18^th century it had gone from being a rutted, rural track to a city artery, lined with residential properties. Gradually shops came along to serve these households with furniture, drapery and clothing.

One important building in the street that had nothing to do with shopping was the Pantheon. Opened in 1772 (on site of the present M&S), it was widely regarded as “the most elegant structure in Europe, if not the globe”. Described as a ‘temple of recreation’, it had a rotunda, card rooms and tea rooms. Masked balls, exhibitions and concerts were held there. Sadly, it was completely destroyed by fire in a single night in 1792.

By the late 1800s, Oxford Street was run-down and in desperate need of redevelopment. In his Dictionary of London (1879) Dickens describes it as possessing “an incongruity and diversity of architecture and appearance” with “many houses which even in a third-rate street would be considered mean and unworthy of the place”. Whereas Regent Street had grown into a prestigious shopping street, Oxford Street remained home to more lowly traders – drapers, butchers and cheesemongers. But change was just around the corner and, as the 19^th century progressed, several of the drapers began to expand into larger premises. The age of the department store had begun and the emergence of these vast emporia characterised the street we know today.

Oxford Street c.1900

Big names included Marshall & Snellgrove (built 1870 and later to become Debenham & Freebody’s, then Debenhams), Bourne & Hollingsworth (built 1902 and now the John Lewis store), and DH Evans (now House of Fraser) which dates from the 1930s and was famous in its day as the first department store to have escalators installed. Other famous stores included Peter Robinson (now the iconic Top Shop store) and, of course, Selfridges, which arrived in 1909. With its US retail methods – well-lit, open displays and shoppers encouraged to browse rather than ‘be served’ - this was the store that totally revolutionised the shopping experience. Aimed primarily at women, the new department stores were like female gentlemen’s clubs, providing a place that women could go to alone or to meet friends.
In addition to shops, Oxford at one time also had 20 pubs. The only one still in existence is The Tottenham at number 6, dating from the mid-19^th century.

Oxford Street blitzed

But very little remains of Oxford Street’s Victorian and Edwardian architecture. It suffered extensive bomb damage during the Blitz, and the four biggest stores were completely obliterated during just a few hours in September 1940. Interestingly, the basement of the Peter Robinson store was used by the BBC as a broadcast studio – George Orwell made several wartime broadcasts from here for the BBC’s India Section. John Lewis boasted a basement air-raid shelter with capacity for 200 people.

Window shopping at Bourne & Hollingsworth 1953

So the Oxford Street shops we see today date mainly from the 1950s and 60s. The former Peter Robinson store (now Top Shop) has achieved listed status due to its importance in London’s social and retail history.

 

 

References:

The Times History of London edited by Hugh Clout (1991)

Village London: Past & Present by Neil Grant (1990)

Monopoly London by Stephen Essberger (1987)

Victorian London by Lee Jackson (2004)

London: The Illustrated History by Cathy Ross & John Clark (2011)