For a long time, it was billed as another London 2012: a big project that would be delivered on time and on budget. Only then it wasn’t. Originally due to open in December 2018, Crossrail only opened, in part, in May last year, by which point the project was nearly £5bn over budget.
However, the mass transport system is now finally playing a leading role in the rejuvenation of the West End and the east end of Oxford Street, in particular. Dee Corsi, chief executive at business improvement district the New West End Company, notes: “The opening of the Elizabeth Line has had a clear positive impact on footfall across the West End, with an increasing number of visitors around the east of Oxford Street in line with the Tottenham Court Road station opening.”
So, just how transformative has Crossrail been to date – and what’s coming down the track once the rest of the network opens this May?
Data from Transport for London [TfL} shows that since the first part of the network opened in May 2022, 27.7 million have entered or exited Tottenham Court Road station, compared with 23.3 million in the whole of 2019 – the last period before Covid restrictions. That equates to more than four million more people.
The boost provided by Crossrail is having a disproportionate impact on Tottenham Court Road station compared to Oxford Circus, the traditional heart of the West End. In 2019, Tottenham Court Road recorded 48% fewer movements than Oxford Circus did in the same period. In 2022, this had narrowed to just 10% fewer. Indeed, last year, Tottenham Court Road was the only West End station to see more entries and exits than in 2019, recording an increase of 16% compared with a decrease of 32% at Oxford Circus.
Sarah Goldman, senior portfolio manager at GPE, has noticed the difference. “I think the Crossrail piece has been fundamental to the regeneration of certain areas, but particularly somewhere like the east end of Oxford Street,” she says.
Retailers and other businesses already liked the area due to its location between Covent Garden and Soho, as well as the rest of Oxford Street, she adds: “But actually, that proximity to Crossrail has also been important to them.”
Goldman admits the delays to the project were frustrating, but adds that its impact to date has been welcome compensation. “People forget quite easily, don’t they?” she says. “There was definitely an element of Crossrail fatigue, where we kept talking about it as developers and investors in property to potential customers and everyone thinking they would never get it. But we were all delighted when it opened.”
String of deals
GPE’s redevelopment of 70 to 88 Oxford Street is one project that has benefited substantially from the opening of Crossrail. Last month, in the latest in a string of deals, the company announced that the world’s largest jewellery maker, Pandora, had signed a lease for a new concept store in the development, taking the retail space to 96% let.
Pandora will occupy the prime corner unit located directly opposite the Tottenham Court Road Elizabeth Line exit on Dean Street. The new unit will be Pandora’s third on Oxford Street, but its first east of Oxford Circus.
The jeweller will join Boom: Battle Bar, a competitive socialising escape room concept that opened at the end of 2022, as well as fashion retailer Reserved, which has taken a 19,645 sq ft unit set to open in the third quarter of 2023. That leaves just one remaining ground floor unit at the development, of 2,319 sq ft.
According to Goldman, such deals were unlikely to have been struck before Crossrail opened, although she adds that unpicking the impact of Covid and Crossrail delays is difficult. “We’d been marketing [70 to 88 Oxford Street] for probably two or three years, to be honest, obviously right in the middle of Covid, so not ideal timing,” she says. “I think it’s a function of the pandemic more than Crossrail as to why they didn’t happen sooner, but I would say in the last six to nine months we’ve seen much more demand and much more interest.”
What is certain is that Crossrail has made it far easier for hundreds of thousands of people to visit the West End, thereby massively increasing the area’s potential customer base. “It has opened up London, there’s no doubt about that,” says Goldman. “More importantly, it’s gone way beyond London in terms of the connectivity. Crossrail can bring people from much further afield into London quickly. It’s phenomenal when you think about it.”
Game changer
Richard Scott, executive director, and Andrew Bond, founding director, at Nash Bond, agree that Crossrail has been a game changer for the east end of Oxford Street and the surrounding area. However, they add that the rejuvenation has been supported by other developments that, to a greater or lesser extent, were enabled by the transport improvements.
“It is all part and parcel of the bigger picture at this end of the street,” says Scott. “The bigger picture is, yes, the Elizabeth Line opening and the impact that it’s had on footfall, but the type of footfall in that location is a reflection on where we’re at in terms of other developments going on. What we’ve got now is potentially one of most exciting areas of the West End. The area has gone through a lot long transformation and is starting to reap the benefits of all the work that’s been done over the last five to 10 years.”
Bond adds: “International brands used to think that it’s either Regent Street or it’s west of Oxford Circus and that the Tottenham Court Road end of Oxford Street was a poor relation to the west. That is no longer the case. Brands have started to look at this part of the street and say ‘actually, this is a place where we should be’.”
In terms of those other developments, the most important is probably @sohoplace, which when it opened last year became the first new theatre to open in the West End in 50 years. The building forms part of Derwent London’s £300m redevelopment of the area around Tottenham Court Road station, which includes a new square next to where the Astoria music venue once stood alongside other improvements to the public realm and new grade A offices. “The theatre clearly brings in tourists to this part of the West End who were never there before,” says Scott.
Outernet London, which opened late last year, is also drawing crowds to the area. The building is billed as the largest digital exhibition space in Europe with the world’s largest LED screen deployment, according to its backers. In addition to digital display and performance spaces, the development includes apartments, offices and retail space. “It is something that if you come in as a tourist to London, you’re going to want to go and see,” says Bond.
In short, the Elizabeth Line has been transformational for the West End and for the western section of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road, in particular – and once the rest of the transport system opens, that transformational impact is only going to grow.
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