London’s West End bucks Christmas shopping trends

Christmas shoppers have turned to the streets of central London to buy their presents this year, with high street footfall in the West End bucking the national trend.

In the week before Black Friday, the fourth Friday of November, footfall was up 9% on 2024, according to data from the New West End Company (NWEC). Across Black Friday week, it was up 4.1% and the following week up by 6.2%.

The weekend of 6 and 7 December was also busy due to the pedestrianisation of Regent Street and live performances on Oxford Street.

NWEC said the period showed “real momentum”. This contradicted the national picture, where the Office of National Statistics said retail sales fell unexpectedly in November.

Black Friday originated in the United States and has been widely adopted by many shops in the UK.

It has become one of the biggest shopping days of the year and for many is the unofficial start to the Christmas shopping season.

“This weekend we are still expecting one of our biggest weekends when people who have left it maybe to the last minute come in to buy presents and extra bedding and towels for guests,” said Rosie Hanley, brand director at John Lewis.

The NWEC said the traffic-free event on Regent Street boosted footfall by 33.7% compared with the year before, and the following day of live performances on Oxford Street increased it by 25.1%.

“Both events featured on-street festive activations and in-store offers and experiences, drawing crowds and causing footfall to surge by nearly a third across the weekend,” the spokesperson said.

Out on Oxford Street, one woman told the BBC she and her friend had their day of shopping planned. “John Lewis for coffee, followed by Selfridges, and then we might have steak for lunch,” she said.

“We won’t stop yapping, eating and shopping.”

Others said they had finished the bulk of their Christmas shopping at the start of the month.

“Not last minute at all,” one man said.

Another man said he liked to leave his shopping to the week before Christmas “to get into the spirit” – but would get it all done in one department store.