2009-04-17
All Change On Oxford Street
There’s been coverage this week of the start of work to rework Oxford Circus, installing diagonal crossings and expanding the pavements (BBC News, Londonist). Obviously it’s hard to imagine this will be a bad thing; anyone who’s tried to get on or off the tube at the station there will have cursed the crowds of people who just seem not to fit the available space.
There’s also a video at the West End Company (mirrored on Vimeo by the Architect’s Journal, and included above) who are funding the work along with Westminster Council.
Elsewhere on their site, they talk about their plans to improve the eastern end of Oxford Street, which is obviously going to change a fair bit as the Crossrail and Tottenham Court Road station projects continue.
On that subject, I’m not sure I noted the coverage in January of the replacement of the Centre Point fountains with a new entrance to TCR outside. (The fountains, meanwhile, might end up in Hampstead.)
All change, indeed. However, unlike the diagonal crossing (due in November), the TCR rework isn’t opening for a good few years. (I’ve not found a date anywhere, except 2017, when Crossrail is due to open. Surely the new ticket hall will open before that, though?)
