A mile of shopping

To coincide with the publication of a definitive new study of Britain’s most famous retail destination, Andrew Saint looks at the history of London’s Oxford Street

- Andrew Saint

A view east along Oxford Street from Oxford Circus. It was probably taken in 1923 for COUNTRY LIFE by Arthur Gill

THE shoppers who crowd into Oxford Street every day might not come in search of history, but they can’t escape it. This celebrated thoroughfare first came into existence as a suburban section of the Roman road network. If you were travelling from London to the Midlands in the Roman period— or for centuries later—you would take the straight line of Holborn out of the City, deviate around Bloomsbury to avoid a marshy patch, then resume the line along the present course of Oxford Street until you came to what is now Marble Arch. From there, you would swing sharp right up Edgware Road, ancient Watling Street.

The Tyburn Turnpike replaced the infamous gallows. Oxford Street extends beyond

Until the 18th century, this thoroughfare had a notoriously unpleasant association: at the present Marble Arch junction stood Tyburn Tree, the gallows, established by at least 1196, that came to serve as London’s chief place of execution. The frequent hangings became popular festivals. Crowds followed the carts of condemned on the long march from Newgate, sharing in the ritual last drink by St Giles in the Fields and getting drunker all the way. Order was usually maintained on the outward journey, but after the event there was a great release of emotion and often a destructive rampage.