Oxford Street is a major thoroughfare in London, England in the City of Westminster. With over 300 shops, it is Europe’s busiest shopping street, as well as the most dense. The street derives its name from being part of the old LondonOxford Road which began at Newgate, City of London. Today the road forms part of the A40, although it is not signposted as this, like other roads in central London. It runs for approximately a mile and a half (two and a half kilometres) from Marble Arch at the north east corner of Hyde Park, through Oxford Circus to St Giles' Circus, at the intersection with Charing Cross Road and Tottenham Court Road. Eastwards, the road then becomes New Oxford Street until it runs into High Holborn. Oxford Street intersects with other London roads including Park Lane, New Bond Street and Regent Street. West of Marble Arch, Oxford Street becomes Bayswater Road. Then up and over Notting Hill and along Holland Park Avenue until it becomes the Uxbridge Road at Shepherd's Bush Roundabout. At Uxbridge it becomes the Oxford London Road again, all the way to Oxford, save for some short sections where it has adopted a local name. The street follows the route of a Roman road, the via Trinobantina, which linked Hampshire with Colchester and became one of the major routes in and out of the city. Between the 12th century and 1782 it was variously known as Tyburn Road (after the River Tyburn that ran just to the south of it, and now flows underneath it), Uxbridge Road, Worcester Road and Oxford Road. Note: Today the name Uxbridge Road still exists for the portion of the London Oxford Road between Shepherds Bush and Uxbridge itself. It became notorious as the route taken by prisoners on their final journey from Newgate Prison to the gallows at Tyburn near Marble Arch. By about 1729, the road had become known as Oxford Street. In the late 18th century, many of the surrounding fields were purchased by the Earl of Oxford, and the area was developed. It became popul...