Will Oxford Street become a less vulgar street without cars?

The last red double-decker rolled down Oxford Street on Sunday night. The BBC reported from the ceremonial journey and spoke of an era that went to the grave. The next morning, all the vehicles were gone. As of this week, Oxford Street is permanently pedestrianized.

- It is much quieter, in terms of working environment it is very nice. The question is how long we can stay, says Amelia, 18, who works in a stall selling freshly squeezed juices.

For the first few hours, people were still sticking to the sidewalks. But by lunchtime on Tuesday, even the closed lanes were packed with Londoners on autumn holiday and tourists with selfie sticks.

Amelia has heard that the cars and buses are just the first step in a larger change plan. The next is to remove the street vendors and souvenir shops from the street.

- It has always been lively and noisy here. Yesterday they blocked off the street and posted guards in reflective vests who yell at cyclists to get off their bikes. It seems that they want to create a completely new kind of place, a new atmosphere. We don't know what it will mean for us, she says.

Oxford Street is the heart of British retail. It was here that in 1909 the American entrepreneur Harry Gordon Selfridge opened the doors of the gilded and colonnaded department store Selfridges with the ambition to transform shopping from a necessary chore into an unforgettable experience.

That doesn't mean everyone loves it. Oxford Street can really be a press.

"This gaudy, teeming, vulgar street reminds us that life is a struggle; that all that is built is perishable; that all display is vanity," author Virginia Woolf wrote in her essay "Oxford Street Tide" in 1932.

In the past years, the shine has dulled further. Selfridges is still standing, but since the pandemic, many of the premises have been taken over by vape, candy and knick-knack shops with grumpy salespeople.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan hopes the new one-kilometre pedestrian street - which stretches from Marble Arch in the west to Oxford Circus in the east - will be a fresh start for the whole area. In a manifesto-like text in The Guardian, he presents his somewhat utopian plans. Oxford Street will become a verdant Eden where visitors can "stumble upon some live music, a fashion show, a sporting exhibition or a cultural event".

Paul, an amateur photographer in his 70s who went into town to take some "pictures of the spectacle", is not convinced.

- I mostly go to punk and metal concerts. It is hard to imagine that they will offer anything that appeals to me here.

- I actually don't think that the soul of this street - if it has any - will change significantly. But all of this has probably cost London a lot of money, he says, pointing to the lime-green traffic barriers and the green-painted asphalt.

The pedestrian adaptation is fully in line with Mayor Sadiq Khan's vision for London. A few years ago, his autobiographical book "Breathe" was published, in which he connected his own asthma with an air-polluted upbringing. As mayor, he has had a strong focus on public health, pedestrian and cycle paths.

The first proposals to remove traffic from Oxford Street were made as early as the 1960s. But time and time again they have encountered patrols. In 2017, Sadiq Khan presented with London Public Transport a modern plan to make the street vehicle-free. The then Conservative Westminster City Council put a stop to it after fierce opposition from residents in the area. Local residents were concerned that traffic would be diverted to the surrounding side streets if Oxfords Street was closed off. Others pointed out that it would be more difficult for the disabled to carry out their errands on the street without buses and taxis.

- Right now everyone is happy and excited that the traffic is gone. Only in a few weeks will we see what the consequences will be for visitors and traders. I think people will miss the double deckers, says Osman, who works in a souvenir stall at Oxford Circus.