Traffic-free West End hopes for £250m spree

Up to 1.5 million Christmas shoppers are expected to brave freezing weather tomorrow as the West End is closed off to traffic.

Oxford Street and Regent Street will be pedestrian-only from 10am to 8pm — longer than any other previous Christmas shopping event — with many major stores opening as early as 8am.

Transport for London has allowed the closure to last four hours longer than last year's after intervention from Topshop boss Sir Philip Green and Mayor Boris Johnson. Stores are expecting to take £250 million over the weekend, amid new hopes of a bumper Christmas.

Richard Dickinson, chief executive of the New West End Company, which organises the traffic-free day, said: "I hope the cold weather will put everyone in a really Christmassy mood for the world's biggest shopping day."

The event has run since 2005 and is usually held in early December, but was brought forward a week to avoid clashing with a climate change rally in central London.

Shoppers will be treated to morning coffee and entertained by brass bands, 50 choirs and the cast of the West End show Jersey Boys. Selfridges will have a fairground outside the store and The Overtones boy band will sing Fifties and Sixties pop classics on the main stage in Regent Street from 5pm.

The day is expected to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for the Starlight Children's Foundation charity, which organises parties and outings for terminally ill youngsters. American Express is donation £1 to Starlight every time an AMEX card is used tomorrow.