Crossrail to boost London's West End with billions

Crossrail is to connect a new consumer group to London and is expected to boost Oxford Street retail by 1 billion pounds after completion in 2020.

Whereas initial estimates by the New West End Company were an extra 1.5 billion pounds for just Oxford Street per year, the growth will see its value increase by generating 6 billion pounds per year.

Crossrail will provide a new way to connect people to London, forging links between communities to the east and west, and enabling this great world city to grow. It is estimated that Crossrail will increase gross development value in the West End by at least 2.5 billion pounds, boosting retail sales in the area to 10 billion pounds annually for the first time – an average of 27 million each day.

200 million passenger journeys will be made on Crossrail every year- increasing London’s rail capacity by a tenth. This will bring an estimated extra 60m visits to the West End, adding to the 200m already made to the area each year.

New West End Company marking manager Luciana Magliocco told Marketing Week that London's West End precinct as a whole generates 8.5 billion pounds of sales per year, which could grow to 11 billion pounds by 2020.

“We want to grow Oxford Street by making it a hotbed for world firsts. Whether that’s the Shakespeare theatre at Selfridges, Dyson opening its first-ever physical store here or John Lewis’ Smart Home only being in its Oxford Street store, we believe the key to growth is to give people things they can’t get anywhere else," she said.

“Businesses have a real growth to open their flagship stores here and we are confident that will only continue.”

“Oxford Street will become the first shopping stop from Heathrow, so there is a great opportunity to attract tourists. There is a strong strategy in place and we’re confident we’ll see increases in footfall, investment and flagship stores over the coming years.”

Photo credit: Elizabeth Line, Crossrail, source Flickr