Rugby Victory Parade Boosted London Retailers

As more than 750,000 rugby supporters packed London's main shopping streets, figures released yesterday by FootFall, show that the number of shoppers in central London was up by more over 16 per cent. The figures suggest the crowds who flocked to the capital to see England's rugby world cup trophy parade stuck around for some Christmas shopping.

David Smyth, marketing manager at FootFall said: "You normally expect retail to suffer when you have large crowds like this and streets blocked off as we saw last month with the Bush visit and earlier in the year with the anti-war demonstrations. "However it appears that once all the celebrating was over, the crowds decided it was time for some retail therapy."

The numbers of shoppers in the central London area are still slightly down on last year as they have been for much of 2003. However, the gap has narrowed considerably to just minus 5 per cent, from the average of minus 11 per cent that had been seen in the six months since the London congestion charging started. Smyth said: "This may be the turning point for December that London retailers have been waiting for as we move into the last two full weeks trading before Christmas."