Oxford Street, a main shopping street in Central London, has been decorated with festive lights for many Christmases since 1959. They have been a regular and popular feature of Christmas in London.
The lights were originally installed in response to nearby Regent Street, which had featured Christmas lights since 1954. The lights were paid for by shop owners and the local council, and were installed in order to give a sense of occasion to shoppers that could not be found anywhere else. The tradition fell out of favour by the early 1970s because of the economic climate, and no lights were featured for some years. It returned in the 1980s following campaigning from local traders.
Since 2010, management of the lights has been undertaken by Field and Lawn, a marquee hire company who also install the Regent Street lights. Around 750,000 bulbs are used annually. Current practice involves a celebrity turning the lights on in mid- to late-November, and the lights remain until 6 January (Twelfth Night). The position of turning the lights on can be considered an aspiration, and an indication that a particular celebrity is very popular. The festivities were postponed in 1963 because of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In 2015, the lights were switched on earlier, on Sunday 1 November, resulting in an unusual closure of the street to all traffic. In 2018, there wasn't a celebrity guest at the light switch on and instead several performers played at various stores along the street.
The following celebrities have turned on the lights since 1981:
1980s
1981 — Pilín León (Miss World, Venezuela) 1982 — Daley Thompson 1983 — Pat Phoenix 1984 — Esther Rantzen 1985 — Bob Geldof 1986 — Leslie Grantham, Anita Dobson 1987 — Derek Jameson 1988 — Terry Wogan 1989 — Gorden Kaye