Shoppers spent “record” amounts of money on Britain’s high streets yesterday as they hunted for bargains in the Boxing Day sales.

Despite tube disruptions we’ve had a very strong start to our Boxing Day sale, with record sales in the first hour

An estimated 5.6 million drivers took to the roads over the course of yesterday to shop until they drop, according to Green Flag breakdown in spite of disruption in London as Tube drivers went on strike over a pay dispute.

Selfridges department stores claimed they had seen their biggest ever first hour of trading after opening four stores in England at 9 a.m., with hourly takings peaking at £1.3 million, yesterday.

Sue West, Selfridges’ director of operations, said: “Despite tube disruptions we’ve had a very strong start to our Boxing Day sale, with record sales in the first hour.

“Selfridges was the first department store to launch its sale on Boxing Day and attracts visitors from all over the world.”

Brent Cross shopping centre in north-west London said that 10,000 had come through the doors within an hour of opening.

General manager Tom Nathan said: “The appetite has moved on from turkey and trimmings to some great bargains today.

“The pre-Christmas sales have not impacted on the excitement of the start of the main sales on Boxing Day at all and we had queues of over 500 people when we opened the doors this morning.”

It was not just shops in the capital which reported brisk trading yesterday. At Cabot Circus shopping centre in Bristol, some shoppers had queued from 5 a.m. to get first choice in the early scramble for bargains.

Centre director Kevin Duffy said: “Cabot Circus has performed well over the festive season and it has been consistently strong – in the week leading up to Christmas we saw a 19 per cent increase in shoppers visiting the centre compared to the same period last year.

“Here in the South West we’re experiencing a very positive uptake.

“Shoppers arrived at Cabot Circus as early as 5 a.m. this morning, in anticipation of the Next and Harvey Nichols sales beginning.

“It’s looking very busy out there as shoppers look to bag the best bargains.”

Managers at the Liverpool One shopping centre said they had an estimated 125,000 people visiting its stores yesterday.

Estate director Chris Bliss said: “We’re seeing a fantastic turnout today at Liverpool One. We have already seen a large number of people coming to Liverpool to do their Christmas shopping this year and the Boxing Day sales are the most anticipated sales of the year, bringing the shopaholics and bargain-hunters out.

The mall, which opened in 2008 following a £1 billion revamp of Liverpool city centre, said it had seen almost 950,000 people visit in the week leading up to Christmas, an increase of 15.7 per cent on last year.

At Birmingham’s Bullring retail complex, which has attracted 1.3 million visitors in the last week, queues began to form as early as 2 a.m.

More than 2,500 eager shoppers were waiting in St Martin’s Walk by the time fashion chain Next opened its doors and the Bullring’s branch of Selfridges saw an initial queue of around 1,000 people.

The 160-store centre estimated that 9,000 visitors had hit its shops by 9 a.m.

Predicting that almost 230,000 bargain hunters would visit the centre during Boxing Day, Bullring general manager Tim Walley commented: “Three of our biggest retailers have launched their iconic Boxing Day sales so we expect a bumper day.

“There is a lot of talk about internet shopping but people still like to come out to shop.”