Vehicles to be removed from world-famous shopping street on 26 October
East has revealed the first images of its designs for the pedestrianisation of central London’s Oxford Street less than three weeks before vehicles will be removed.
Traffic will be rerouted from 26 October as part of the first phase of the transformation of the world famous shopping street, which will cover a 1km section either side of Oxford Circus between Orchard Street and Great Portland Street.
Images published by East show a row of trees in giant planters down the middle of the street running west from Oxford Circus with more trees in the distance flanking either side of the road.
New cream and grey-coloured paving appears to replace the existing road surface, with the image showing crowds of shoppers walking down the vehicle-free space.
East, a public realm specialist based in east London, said leading the design of the pedestrianisation was a “dream project”, adding staff were “delighted to be putting 30 years of high street expertise to work on the city’s most famous thoroughfare”.
The scheme has been designed for the Oxford Street Development Corporation (OSDC), a planning authority established by Sadiq Khan in August in order to drive the project forward.
The creation of the OSDC comes after the mayor’s original plans to pedestrianise the street, designed by Publica, were blocked by Westminster council in 2018 due to concerns over the impact of increased traffic on surrounding streets.
Hawkins Brown is also working on a transformation of the wider Oxford Street area up to Tottenham Court Road which could constitute later phases of the project.
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