Wow, the photos of Oxford Street.
I havenāt been there since before the pandemic began. If Iām honest itās because Iād find it too depressing. I went into Knightsbridge for a meeting over a year ago and it was a ghost town, but havenāt ventured up West since then and now Iāve left London. I think this is mostly an issue of unrealistically high rents from greedy landlords more than anything else, hence the boarded up units. If Philip Green hadnāt raided Arcadia (it was cash rich and owned many of the stores, before he cashed them in and rented them back) I reckon theyād have survived this. But the long term trend is to shop online instead, which I almost always do. I find retail overwhelming and tiring. Now Iāve moved up North I can plainly see the difference in cheap and expensive rents. Here in this town there are several small family businesses that thrive, little knitting and sewing shops, a plant shop, an independant diy store, plenty chip shops in some towns that have traded forever, despite opening only a few hours a week. Greedy landlords have ripped the heart out of London, it was exciting in the 90ās, Iām thinking of places like Kensington Market and the original Camden, now itās all so dull and corporate.
