Oxford Street Londres stretches for two kilometers through the heart of the West End, and I'll be honest – it's not for everyone. This strip connecting Marble Arch to Tottenham Court Road handles around 300,000 visitors daily, which means you're constantly weaving through crowds. But there's something oddly compelling about Europe's busiest shopping street.

The street carries more history than most people realize while dodging between shoppers. Romans built the original road here – the Via Trinobantina – linking Essex to Hampshire. Later it became the notorious Tyburn Road, where public executions drew massive crowds to Tyburn Gallows. The commercial transformation happened gradually in the 18th century, evolving from residential Oxford Road into today's retail powerhouse.

Walking the length today, you'll pass roughly 300 shops crammed into every available space. Selfridges dominates the landscape with its six floors and endless departments – you could genuinely spend an entire day there. The flagship stores of major brands line both sides, creating an almost overwhelming parade of shopfronts. Traffic gets restricted to buses and taxis during peak hours, which helps slightly with the chaos.

What surprised me most were the hidden escapes. Brown Hart Gardens, just two minutes off the main drag, sits perched atop a Victorian electrical substation. The Duke of Westminster insisted on creating these Italian gardens back in 1905, and after decades closed to the public, they reopened recently. It's a genuine refuge from the street-level madness below, complete with a design café and unexpected views over Mayfair's rooftops.

The street marks an invisible boundary too – Fitzrovia and Marylebone spread north, while Soho and Mayfair lie south. You can sense the neighborhood shifts as you walk, even amid all the commercial activity. Oxford Circus creates the main intersection, where four directions of pedestrian traffic converge in barely controlled chaos.

Discover all the secrets of Oxford Street with our complete London audio guide to learn about the street's fascinating evolution from execution route to shopping destination. The constant flow of half a million daily visitors creates an energy that's simultaneously exhausting and oddly addictive. You might find yourself returning despite swearing you never would.