Shoppers carrying shopping bags walk along Oxford Street in London. (EPA Images pic)LONDON: Part of London's Oxford Street, Britain's busiest shopping thoroughfare, went permanently traffic-free on Monday in an effort to revitalise the area and create a new public space to boost economic growth.
An almost 1-km (0.6-mile) section of Oxford Street between the Selfridges and IKEA stores is now closed to buses, cars, taxis, cycles, scooters and pedicabs, the office of London Mayor Sadiq Khan said.
The move has been more than two decades in the making. It and a wider regeneration project aim to put Oxford Street back among top global shopping destinations including New York's Times Square, Paris' Champs-Élysées and Barcelona's La Rambla.
