Oxford Street is the commercial magnet that draws shoppers, visitors and workers into the West End. This means the tubes are more ore less empty once the four stations that run its length have been passed.
However, had the proverbial Martian visitor been travelling on the Central Line last Thursday he, she or it might have observed how busy the train was until it reached the stop marked Shepherd’s Bush. Then everybody got off. And the reason for this mass disembarkation was the opening of Westfield London.
Had the Martian been in possession of a press pass, he – let's make him masculine for the sake of argument – would have been able to stand inside the mall at just before 9am and watch as the doors opened and excited people literally ran into the centre screaming.
Excitement was at fever pitch – and for good reason. This is, after all, Europe's biggest in-city shopping centre, with more shops, more restaurants and more of almost everything you might care to mention than anywhere else in a metropolitan area.
And in keeping with this, all retailers had put their best foot forward. There was just one problem. Part of the centre was given over to an area called The Village with 40 or so units and this was conspicuous by the absence of shops that were trading.
The Village is the area of the mall set aside for designer shops and with the likes of Tiffany, Prada, De Beers and Louis Vuitton, it should have been the star of the show.
To an extent it was. The public areas in this part of the scheme were demarcated by large chandeliers, a ripples-on-a-pond ceiling and an eye catching pastel-peach lighting scheme. In fairness, Tiffany, Ted Baker Pashion – the upmarket version of the eponymous brand – and a couple of others were up and running, but the great bulk were not.
Which rather begs the question why. At the best of times designerdom is not marked by its level-headedness or its ability to meet deadlines, but surely the fact that Westfield was opening on October 30 cannot have passed unnoticed. This looks rather more like a case of prima-donna behaviour and personal agenda setting, to the general detriment of The Village as a whole.
These stores should have been open on time, if only so that word of their presence could have been spread by the crowds who flocked on opening day. A trick missed.
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