3-077-487 - The London Archives (City of London)/Heritage Images

Christmas illuminations on Regent Street, West End, looking south to the Quadrant, London , 1970. There have been Christmas lights on Regent Street in various forms since 1882. The current regular displays date from 1954, prompted by a Daily Telegraph article describing Central London as drab and dull in mid-winter. The Regent Street Association organised and financed the first display and Oxford Street followed suit in 1959. The lights proved so popular that the House of Lords attempted to bring action against the responsible authorities for causing obstruction. Here Christmas shopping is in full swing, the pavements packed with shoppers and the road full of cars, taxis and Routemaster buses. The 1971 display was the last for a few years as, due to recession in the UK, no funding was available from 1972 to 1977 and there were no Regent Street Christmas lights. The displays resumed in 1978 and continue to this day, with a November switching on ceremony headlined by royalty or a celebrity. The themes of the Regent Street Christmas lights are traditionally tastefully elegant in keeping with the ambience of an area of listed buildings and high-end retail.