ITS thundering buses, filthy pavements and crushing crowds are as memorable as any of the fashions on offer in its shops. Now Oxford Street, the London thoroughfare nicknamed “Britain’s high street”, is to be given a £1 billion facelift.

Under plans announced by Ken Livingstone, the London mayor, an electric tramway will replace buses and taxis along the 1½ -mile route, while piazzas and pedestrianised zones oust busy junctions and choked side streets.

Futuristic glass structures and sculptures will also transform landmarks such as Marble Arch, Piccadilly Circus and St Giles Circus to mark out the boundaries of Livingstone’s new West End “shopping zone”, which will include Oxford Street and Regent Street.

The West End is still the country’s most popular shopping destination with 200m visitors a year. But Livingstone believes it is unwelcoming and outdated in comparison with the revived centres of cities such as Birmingham, Manchester, Barcelona and Dublin.

“The appearance of the area at the moment is pretty grim, especially for pedestrians,” the mayor told the London assembly last week. “There is no point pretending you can take all the traffic out without providing an alternative and that’s why I have stated my intention to work towards the introduction of trams along Oxford Street [by] . . . 2012 or 2013.”

Stuart Rose, who as chief executive of Marks & Spencer is one of the street’s most influential shopkeepers, welcomed Livingstone’s proposals, saying the area outside his flagship store “couldn’t get any worse”.

“In our parents’ time, people used to talk about going ‘up West’ as something good to do and I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t return to that,” said Rose.

“It’s a shame the mayor’s plan will take seven years. Other areas of London have improved but Oxford Street has been left looking tatty, like the poor relation.” The street was laid out wide and straight as the Romans’ main road to the West Country, but its present status as the nation’s main shopping thoroughfare was acquired early last century when large department stores such as Selfridges and Debenhams opened.

In recent decades, the crowds and a failure to curb traffic have made the area increasingly uncomfortable for pedestrians, while tatty stalls selling cut–price football shirts and mobile phones have proliferated.

Research quoted by Livingstone’s office last year found that 156 people passed one typical spot in Oxford Street every minute, nearly four times the number considered tolerable.

Westminster, the local council, has banned cars and put potted shrubs on the pavements in an effort to make it more friendly. But Oxford Street’s function as a thoroughfare for buses means traffic is still continuous, herding shoppers onto the pavements.

On one occasion, retailers even demanded “fast lanes” for walkers in which anyone caught dawdling would be fined.

The capital has fallen behind other cities that have used shopping to revitalise dangerous and depressing centres. Manchester took advantage of the destruction caused by an IRA bomb in 1996 to refurbish its centre.

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