Oxford Street is Europe's busiest shopping street and a major visitor attraction in London's West End. It's an exhaust fume-choking strip of over 300 stops, many of them housed within grand 19th century Victorian buildings. Various British and international chains have their flagship stores on Oxford Street and it attracts over half a million visitors a day.
Oxford Street runs through the borough of Mayfair, from Soho and Tottenham Court Road Underground Station in the east, to Hyde Park and Marble Arch in the west. It crosses both Regent Street and Bond Street. When on Oxford Street it's difficult to miss Selfridges, a gargantuan luxury department store that's home to many big brands and small boutiques.
Oxford Street is directly accessed via a string of London Underground stations. From east to west these are: Tottenham Court Road, Oxford Circus, Bond Street, and Marble Arch. Open top hop-on hop-off bus tours travel down Oxford Street, as do many red double-decker London buses. Note that vehicle access to the street is strictly restricted to buses and taxis. Particularly in summer, the street and its stores are extremely busy with pedestrians, both locals and tourists.
This has been one of London's most important roads since the Roman era. During the Middle Ages it was the notorious route taken by prisoners on their journey to the gallows near Hyde Park. Spectators threw rotten fruit at the prisoners and could purchase the rope used by the hangman.