Oxford Street is only one short section of one of the main thoroughfares leading west out of the centre of London. Just about four miles along the road it becomes Uxbridge Road, which is the main street running through West Ealing and Hanwell, where I grew up. It follows the route of a Roman road, the Via Trinobantia which led all the way to Hampshire. The Oxford Street section of the road runs from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch. Marble Arch was built by John Nash as the ceremonial gateway to Buckingham Palace, but was moved to its present location to make room for the extension work on the Palace in the 1850s. It’s current location was once called Tyburn, which is where the gallows held public executions.
Oxford Street’s reputation as a shopping street largely came about with the 20th century, and if there was one pivotal factor in its development it was probably Harry Gordon Selfridge’s decision to open his eponymous department store on Oxford Street in 1908. Amongst the many distinctions the store holds, it was the venue for the first ever public demonstration of a form of television in 1925.
Like Regent Street, Oxford Street is famous for its annual Christmas lights and every year since 1959 a celebrity has ceremoniously turned on the lights (not the same celebrity, obviously). Oxford Street also boasted its own lovable eccentric for many years. From 1968 until his death in 1993, Stanley Green paraded the street with a placard advising people to eat less meat and reduce their libido, which would make them kinder. He also produced a pamphlet on the subject, which sold an estimated 87,000 copies. I saw Mr. Green once or twice in Oxford Street. I didn’t speak to him. Later I saw him interviewed on a segment for a TV show and he came across as a very pleasant if slightly unworldly gentleman.
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