London recovery: West End busier than week before as shoppers get into Christmas spirit
Central London was busier last week than the previous week, as shoppers got into the festive spirit.
Shopping destinations including Oxford Street and Regent Street saw an 8.3 per cent boost to footfall, in the week beginning 14 November.
In a further endorsement for the City’s rebound, London’s office hubs were also busier than the week before. There was a 6 per cent uptick in footfall, according to the retail expert’s ‘back to the office’ metric.
However, in comparison to pre-pandemic levels, London is still lagging behind. Footfall in central London was down 15.9 per cent compared to the same week in 2019.
Back to the office
What’s more, the ‘back to the office’ measure recorded a 20.6 per cent drop on 2019 levels, for office areas in central London.
Footfall has risen after Christmas lights were turned on across the West End and ahead of Black Friday, with many retailers launching deals in the run up to the discount day.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “The beginning of the Christmas trading period began in earnest in many retail destinations last week, and it had an increasingly positive impact on shopper activity, ahead of Black Friday. In contrast with the week before when footfall rose at the weekend following the switch on of Christmas lights in a number of destinations, last week footfall rose from the previous week on every day apart from Sunday when it was flat from the week before.”
Across all retail destinations, the increase in footfall last week was nearly three times that of the week before.
Wehrle added: “Shoppers were clearly gravitating to larger towns and cities in order to soak up the Christmas atmosphere as, whilst there were significant rises across all types of town centre, there were particularly large increases in Central London and city centres outside of the capital.”