The Ghosts of Oxford Street (1991)
By Malcolm McLaren
Although today it’s a pale shadow of its former self, Oxford Street in London’s West End was long a mecca for shoppers from around the world. Built on the site of the Roman Via Trinobantina which ran from Essex to Hampshire via London, it was known as Tyburn Road in the Middle Ages and was the site of the notorious public hangings of prisoners in Newgate Prison – it’s also where Kevin Francis got the name for his minor 70s British horror production company Tyburn Film Productions. Towards the end of the 19th century it began its long transition from largely residential buildings to the world-famous retail heart of London. For many it still holds a romantic mystique, despite the fact that many of the larger and most famous shops have long since closed up their doors and in 1991 former Sex Pistols manager, clothes designer and entrepreneur Malcolm McLaren was the unlikely creator of a Christmas Day love letter to the road. McLaren had long harboured a love for the street, having made an earlier film about it as part of a never finished arts project while studying at Goldsmith’s College in 1970. There’s not much of a plot here to speak of. The always annoying McLaren (who wrote and…
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