Deputy Mayor looks to Barcelona for Oxford Street inspiration

Seb Dance has met a counterpart from the Catalonian city to see what London can learn from its famous pedestrian avenue, La Rambla

It has been central Barcelona's flagship pedestrian avenue for the best part of two centuries and a key feature of that city's allure. Now, La Rambla is being looked at as a model for Sadiq Khan's plan to pedestrianise Oxford Street and take control of its surrounding area.

Attending the recent European Mayors' Summit in Strasbourg, Seb Dance, Khan's Deputy Mayor for Transport, met a counterpart, Barcelona's Laia Bonet. He discussed with her, says City Hall, "the benefits of pedestrianised streets for cities and the challenges of large-scale regeneration projects".

An astringent view might be that such a discussion was not before time. It is not necessary to search very far to find people with an interest in the Mayor's project, announced six weeks ago, who have concluded that City Hall dispatched its press release about it first and didn't start thinking seriously about how to set about the task until later.

Pedestrianising Oxford Street was never going to be just a matter of putting down a few more paving stones. The avenue and its connected infrastructure, including the buildings along it, form a vital artery of one of the UK's most economically-productive places, not just for shopping but for employment too. It might be careworn and congested, but if you're going to transform it into a radically different piece of urban space, you need to know what you're doing.

The particular relevance of La Rambla at this time is that is undergoing its own process of renewal. Three-quarters of a mile in length - compared with the full one mile of Oxford Street - the tree-lined street has a series of different sections - which is why the name is often pluralised to Las Ramblas - each with its own character and history. It offers a mix of places to eat, shop and enjoy cultural pleasures. It currently has a narrow and restricted one-way road traffic lane running down either side. The plan is to reduce motor vehicle access still further and widen pavements, changing, stage-by-stage, the way La Rambla looks and how it is used.

Among the reasons Labour-run Westminster Council has rejected pedestrianisation is that it doubts such a long, open space can be effectively managed and the safety of people wandering there ensured. Any part of a city with many tourists will attract crime, notably robbers and pickpockets. This has long been the case in the West End, but La Rambla has acquired an unhappy reputation for being particularly prone to crime of this kind. Following his meeting with Bonet, Dance said he hoped some of the features of La Rambla can be replicated on Oxford Street. Street thieving will not be among them.

What he and the Mayor will be keen on emulating is a green and pleasant street environment rich in a range of attractions that draws visitors from across the city, around the country and all over the world, thereby restoring what is sometimes called "the nation's high street" to a state that merits such a title, and also maximises its desirability for employers and their staff.

The formation of a mayoral development corporation accountable to the Mayor, whose possible boundary On London has revealed, opens up the prospect of local businesses being called on to contribute to the costs of maintaining the physical fabric and the security of the space. There is a long, long way to go and lot to be got right if London is to emulate La Rambla's successes while learning lessons from its problems too.

Photo from Barcelona Tourist Guide.

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