The tacky Oxford Street stores that refuse to die: Why they are STILL blighting London's once iconic shopping district despite council crackdown

Oxford Street is still being blighted by low-quality candy and souvenir shops despite an ongoing council crackdown and major retailers moving in, MailOnline can reveal.

An influx of US-style sweet stores selling overpriced merchandise took hold of London’s premier shopping destination during the pandemic as the total hit 40.

Council bosses were unable to quickly shut down the store owners who evaded £9million worth of business rates amid concerns they were driving away visitors.

Many shops moved into vacant stores on Oxford Street after big name retailers left such as Topshop, House of Fraser, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins and Debenhams.

But officials found themselves playing ‘whack-a-mole’ with the sweet shop owners as new stores began opening up in different locations on the road after others closed.

Investigators are also looking into a string of garish and unofficial Harry Potter-themed stores which sell a range of genuine merchandise from the books and films.

Questions emerged in March about who is behind some of these stores, with many the latest incarnation of a murky retail network which includes the candy shops.

Now, the total of candy or souvenir shops on Oxford Street has fallen to 18 and the amount of business rates arrears they owe has dropped to around £1.4million a year.

One of the many souvenir shops on Oxford Street. This one replaced a Holland & Barrett store

Unofficial Harry Potter-themed stores are popping up – with one in a former Phones 4U store

The souvenir shop ‘London Gifts & Luggage’ is located in a former Swarovski store

The ‘Royal Gifts Gallery’ sells ‘London souvenirs, gifts and luggage’. It used to be a Clarks store

The ‘Best of London’ store on Oxford Street in London used to be a Schuh shop

Customers look into one of the souvenir shops, which used to be a Virgin Media store

Westminster City Council believe court action and enforcement have played a part, as well as decent pop-up businesses and better quality tenants returning to the area.

They also cite publicity in publications such as MailOnline to underline a message of ‘buyer beware’, given how many sweets being sold contain dangerous ingredients or do not have labels in English, meaning consumers cannot check allergen notices.

But many of the shops are still trading – illustrated last week by an astonishing raid on one which found a secret section leading to an underground tunnel where two staff fled after police were alerted to a tourist charged £899 for two bags of sweets.

The bust on April 25 was the largest single haul the council had made on Oxford Street in a single raid, where they seized £80,000 worth of fake or unsafe goods.

Council bosses are struggling to keep on top of the problem, which they believe is ultimately down to the building owners or their agents who allow such shop owners to be tenants.

As a local authority, the council have no power over who commercial building owners decide to rent space to.

Officials are trying to bring court action against the stores who dodge business rates, but this is made tougher by companies are being quickly dissolved or liquidated, leaving a long line of creditors.

Two women browse the vapes on sale at one of the many stores on Oxford Street selling them

A sweet shop on Oxford Street is pictured amid an ongoing council crackdown on such stores

This shop called ‘Snack n Gifts’ sells what is described to shoppers as ‘marchandise’ [sic]

The interior of one of the souvenir stores which sell low-quality merchandise to tourists

Many stores on Oxford Street sell American sweets and souvenirs to visiting tourists

A shop called ‘London Souvenirs & Luggages’ is one of the many Oxford Street souvenir stores

London buses on Oxford Street which has been swamped by candy stores in recent years

Souvenir shops can be found along Oxford Street after many major retailers moved out

Vapes are often found on sale at the shops which moved into vacant stores on Oxford Street

Vapes on sale at a store on Oxford Street which has become overrun with souvenir shops

Vapes can be seen at the shops which have popped up in vacant stores on Oxford Street

A shop called ‘Money Exchange’ offers a series of phone and vape products which can be seen

The interior of one of the souvenir shops which attract tourists visiting Oxford Street

‘Gift Galore London’ is one of the many souvenir shops located on Oxford Street in London

The council are also often given shell company names or false information, and many businesses dissolve without ever filing accounts with Companies House.

As a local authority, their remit is limited to business rates collection and trading standards powers or environment health where food products are involved.

But they continue to wind up and pursue non-payers, and trading standards officers are still trying to seize suspected fake and unsafe goods from shops.

Adam Hug, leader of Westminster City Council, told MailOnline: ‘Our job is to protect people who visit the West End from being exploited and continuing raids and court appearances will ensure life is sour for the rogue US sweet shop trade.

‘Hopefully, the fall in the number of US candy and souvenir shops means the tide is going out on this tatty trade.’

In the last two years, the council has taken more than £1million of fakes, unsafe food products, products without labelling, illegally strong vapes off the streets.

Previous raids on Oxford Street candy stores have discovered Swedish Fish and Hot Tamales sweets, which are banned in the UK due to the impact their additive ingredients can have on children.

Teams have also found supersize vapes with tanks many times the size of the UK legal limit of 2ml and twice the legal amount of nicotine.

Vapes are often found on sale at the shops which moved into vacant stores on Oxford Street

Sweets and souvenirs on sale inside one of the stores on Oxford Street in London’s West End

Boards cover one of the stores, with the name ‘London Vape Experts’, on Oxford Street 

Vapes on sale at a store on Oxford Street which has become overrun with souvenir shops

The ‘Rockaway’ store sells ‘souvenir’ [sic] as well as mobile accessories and vapes

The interior of one of the souvenir shops which attract tourists visiting Oxford Street

Harry Potter merchandise is often found at the souvenir shops located on Oxford Street

Vapes are often found on sale at the shops which moved into vacant stores on Oxford Street

Another ‘Best of London’ store which has postcards and keyrings on sale outside

Some of the Harry Potter merchandise found at the souvenir shops located on Oxford Street

Boards cover one of the stores, with the name ‘Crest of London’, on Oxford Street 

Fake designer phone covers and potentially dangerous electrical equipment including power banks, chargers and adapters are also sold at some shops.

Heated tobacco has also found to be openly on display – not in closed cabinets as the law states.

The Chartered Trading Standards Institute has warned parents over unauthorised ingredients contained in imported American sweets and fizzy drinks with known links to hyperactivity and cancer in children.

Among the treats imported from the US that have been seized in the UK in recent years because they contained banned ingredients are Mountain Dew drinks; Dubble Bubble; Jolly Rancher gummies and hard candy; Twizzlers and Lemonhead.

Oxford Street has become blighted by crime and homelessness in recent years having fallen into disrepair with empty shops, littered streets and dwindling numbers of visitors.

Problems reached a peak in August 2023 when West End stores were forced to lower their shutters and lock customers inside after large groups of mainly young men and teens responded to a call on TikTok to join an ‘Oxford Circus JD robbery’.

One month earlier, Watches of Switzerland chief executive Brian Duffy branded Oxford Street a ‘national embarrassment’ and said there was ‘no question that more needs to be done’ to revive it.

This is the store on Oxford Street where a tourist was sold two packets of sweets costing £899

Westminster council leader Adam Hug with confiscated food from a sweet shop last October

One raid found illicit Lucky Charms cereal and KitKats containing dangerous ingredients

Products on sale at sweet shops are bagged up and sent to the incinerator by council workers

A council raid in March 2023 on one of the tacky Oxford Street shops selling counterfeit goods

A raid on American candy stores on Oxford Street in October 2022 saw the council seize £215,000 worth of fake Gucci phone cases, vapes and counterfeit rucksacks in a crackdown

The council seized a haul of fake Wonka chocolate bars worth £22,000 which were among counterfeit products totalling £100,000 seized from three Oxford Street stores in June 2022

The candy stores and souvenir shops are at the centre of concerns over the poor quality of the street.

MailOnline has led the charge to reclaim Oxford Street from candy stores – revealing in June 2022 that a huge tax scam investigation had been launched into more than 30 shops for allegedly avoiding business rates amounting to at least £7.9million.

Last September, London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan suggested that granting City Hall extra powers over planning on Oxford Street would mean the candy stores and vape shops will be replaced by ‘flagship’ stores.

Sir Sadiq also wants to pedestrianise 0.7 miles of the street as part of the regeneration despite warnings this could make it a crime-ridden ‘no-go area’.

Major brands moving in are seen by council bosses as a crucial part of restoring Oxford Street to its former glory as one of the world’s top shopping destinations.

The area was boosted when HMV reopened its old flagship store in November 2023, while fashion retailer Mango was revealed to have signed for a second UK flagship store at 415-419 Oxford Street in January.

The new Ikea opened on May 1 in the building previously occupied by Topshop, and Puma has said it will launch a major new store on Oxford Street this autumn.

The newly-opened Ikea City store on Oxford Street, which opened its doors on Thursday

Fans queue up for the reopening of the HMV store at 363 Oxford Street in November 2023

An artist’s impression of the new Puma store set to open at 376-384 Oxford Street in London

Chaos in Oxford Street in August 2023 was triggered by an online push to ‘rob JD Sports’

In July 2023, small businesses were given the chance to open rent-free shops on Oxford Street in units vacated by the illicit candy stores.

A £10million scheme called ‘Meanwhile On: Oxford Street’ aimed to transform the area allowed small business owners to open stores rent free and lower business rates by 70 per cent.

Dee Corsi, chief executive of the New West End Company business partnership, told MailOnline: ‘Candy stores make up less than 1 per cent of trading space on Oxford Street, and we’ve seen a significant reduction in the number operating over the last 12 months.

‘In that time, Oxford Street has evolved at pace, with significant private investment flowing into the street from retailers like Ikea and luxury gym brand Third Space to BDO, who have leased space in the redeveloped M Building to house their headquarters.

‘With bold plans for the revitalisation of the street’s public realm having been put forward by the Mayor of London, we are confident that Oxford Street’s transformation will only continue to pick up momentum from here.’