More than £200m in sales were predicted for last Saturday along Oxford Street and Regent Street in London as the district welcomed over 2 million shoppers for the West End’s fifth traffic-free VIP (Very Important Pedestrians) Day. 

Retailers said the event prompted “the best day’s trading in two years”, and organiser New West End Company said it was “the best traffic-free day ever”.

The organiser staged more than £500,000 of free entertainment, and many of the area’s 600 stores had to call in extra staff.

New West End Company spokesman Jace Tyrrell estimated more than 400 TVs had sold in the first hour of the morning.