Also in Old Compton Street: Sunspel shop worker Andy Cottingham said: ‘It has been surprisingly slow but there are a nice mix of tourists – people are perhaps avoiding the area and the footfall is much quieter than expected’

Published: 3 August, 2012
by JOSH LOEB and RUTH STIVEY

WHERE is everyone?

That was the question on the lips of Soho business people as Westminster City Council held urgent talks aimed at finding ways to tempt visitors back to central London.

West End businesses had been banking on a boost from the Olympic Games and, some suggested, warnings from Mayor of London Boris Johnson had turned the area into a virtual ghost town.

Amid reports of a downturn in trade, Covent Garden showbiz store Dress Circle announced this week it would be closing in a fortnight.

The shop’s managing director Murray Allan said: “We were hoping that the Olympics might bring in some much-needed tourism to the theatre world and bring some customers through our doors, but Monmouth Street is even quieter than usual and so it seems are the rest of the shops in London.”

The curtain will come down on the shop on August 15.

Ken Wright, owner of the Phoenix Artist Club in Charing Cross Road, said trade had been “disastrous”.

"Takings are a third of what we would get normally,” he said. “The knock-on effects are that regulars won’t come, theatres were closed for the opening ceremony and the kids working in the theatres are not coming into London with all the scare around transport.

“I want to tell Boris to stop giving out the wrong advice and killing the West End.”

Briege Noonan, manager of Jazz After Dark in Greek Street, said: “With the recession we’ve been struggling. We’ve been holding out for the Olympics and hoping for things to get better. It’s scary how quiet it is.”

And Tony Micallef, owner of Italian restaurant Pulcinella in Old Compton Street, said: “The Olympics have given us nothing.”

Local government expert Professor Tony Travers, from the London School of Economics, said many people had gone on holiday or were working from home. He said: “If what’s been achieved is for an over-zealous message to go out about coming to central London, that will be very bad for business.”

Mayor Johnson’s “hi folks” public address announcements on the transport system were axed on Wednesday, but Transport for London insisted the decision had nothing to do with the downturn.

In contrast to the relatively deserted streets of the West End, the Westfield mall next to the Olympic Park in Stratford was packed.

Mr Johnson said: “People are planning their journeys and managing the way they travel, and the times at which they travel. It’s meant that we’ve been able to keep the city moving well even with an increase in passenger numbers.”

On Tuesday business lobby groups held talks with Westminster Council to discuss how to advertise the world class shopping and entertainment attractions in the area.

The council’s business chief Cllr Daniel Astaire said: “We’ve got a vast selection of restaurants which will tickle the taste-buds of visitors to the Olympics far more than McDonald’s in Stratford.”