Oxford Street's empty candy shops, and London's secret menus, for Hannah Ricketts
Her walk down a struggling shopping street drew a comment section full of memories of C&A, HMV and Littlewoods, while a cheaper eating-out video followed four days later.
Hannah Ricketts
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World's Best Shopping Street Is Now FAILING! This Is Why…
Hannah Ricketts usually brings her viewers London at its shiniest: Harrods, five-star hotels, tasting menus. Her Friday upload went the other way. "World's Best Shopping Street Is Now FAILING! This Is Why…" walks the length of Oxford Street to ask what has happened to it, and it lingers on the candy and souvenir shops that seem to have no customers and no prices on the shelves.
The comment section turned into a reunion of people who knew the street before. Viewers remember Thursday-evening shopping in the eighties and nineties, the old C&A and HMV, and one former Littlewoods worker at Marble Arch says that the first candy shop in the video stands where the store used to be. Others want to know whether this is the start of Hannah's investigative-journalist era, and a reader from Ireland says the same kind of shop has turned up there too.
Tuesday's upload went back to more familiar ground. "I Ate SECRET MENUS At London's Top Restaurants.." promises off-menu dishes without spending a fortune, and it had a faster first day than the Oxford Street walk. It is now the channel's busiest video. Last month's Harrods tour has passed a million views and is still drawing a steady crowd.
Two uploads, right on the Tuesday-and-Friday schedule, but the channel as a whole ran at about half its usual pace, with a modest gain in subscribers. That is in line with much of the food world around her: Adam Witt and Gary Eats are also well below their usual pace, and Alpine Butcher and Ryantagcoffee kept the biggest crowds.
Published on Trari
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What viewers say
That was a brilliant advert… for not going to Oxford Street.
@andygj66See it on YouTubeIs this the start of Hannah's investigative journalist arc?
@purplepothosSee it on YouTubeUsed to love going to Oxford Street on Thursday evenings shopping after work back in the 80’s & 90’s. It’s such a joyless street nowadays. Can’t think of one single store I want to visit now.
@Houlton44See it on YouTube
7 more comments
Ghost Town by The Specials comes to mind when I think of Oxford St
@BenjimikeySee it on YouTubeI remember when Oxford Street used to be so packed, you could hardly move. How the mighty have fallen.
@chrisblaySee it on YouTubeHard to believe but I worked in Marble Arch Littlewoods store 41 years ago. 1985 when I was 19. Menswear Monday to Friday. Saturday store detective with Jaqui. I looked about 12 years old. I was in London last week to surprise my twin brother on our 60th birthday. Had a visit to Marble Arch to reminisce. Happy days. Life goes so quick.🙏💜 : footnote that first candy store was where Littlewoods was. Opposite was C&A...
@boycie1940See it on YouTubeWe are plagued by those so called candy shops here in Ireland to 🙄
@annettegregg8654See it on YouTubeSo sad to see Oxford Street like this 😢I grew up in the old “glory days” of Oxford Street with stores like C & A, Selfridges, HMV, John Lewis and Saxone. Sad to see all those dodgy shops 😮 Well done for warning unsuspecting tourists. 👍👍👍
@SuzieRayCammSee it on YouTubeI just love it when Hannah calls it the way she sees it
@leefergusson1957See it on YouTubeI used to love walking down that street. It's saddening to see and hear about its decline.
@layercultureSee it on YouTube
Public comments from the video's page on YouTube
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The videos drawing views on Hannah Ricketts right now
- Channel
- Hannah Ricketts
- Subscribers
- 519,000 ▲ 2,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 1,099,623
- Videos published this week
- 2
- Video published
- October 2, 2026
- Video views so far
- 288,208
- Views on its first day
- 135,893
The numbers
Here is how Hannah Ricketts' channel and her newest videos did over the week.
💡 Test your knowledge
One viewer hears a song about a run-down Britain when thinking of Oxford Street: "Ghost Town". Which band recorded it?
"Ghost Town" by The Specials went to number one in the UK in 1981.
