The West End

The West End’s reputation rose with the building boom of the 1920s. Shops made the West End fashionable and public transport made it busier. Many of the department stores in Oxford Street and Regent Street went up-market when they moved to new premises. Bond Street and Mayfair provided more exclusive shopping areas but all parts of the West End attracted crowds. The new Piccadilly underground station opened in 1928 was designed for 50 million passengers a year. It was a triumph for London: ‘not only the best underground station in London but the best in the world, challenging comparison with any station in New York’.