2012-05-17
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Two photos from the amazing, huge pickmix.co.uk site, collecting photographs from the London Transport Museum’s archive. On the left, in a 1977 colour print by Paul Proctor:
The experimental press-button Passenger Route Indicator machine installed in the ticket hall at Heathrow Central (now Heathrow Terminals 1,2,3) Underground station. The indicator incorporated a TV screen designed to display a diagrammatic route map of the chosen journey.
And to the right, a 1974 photograph by H J Hare & Son:
A passenger consults a route indicator machine at Oxford Circus Underground station. Oxford Circus services Central, Victoria and Bakerloo lines.
You can see more of my favourite images from the site. See also: a similar map in Paris.
2010-03-04
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Westminster really seems to have some sort of fever for redesiging its major junctions at the moment. Piccadilly Circus is next, according to the BBC:
Piccadilly Circus will be made pedestrian-friendly as part of a £14m revamp, which will rid the busy central London junction of guard railings.
Westminster Council approved the plan that will see the area go back to what it looked like in 1963, as more than one kilometre of railings are uprooted.
A central island will be built along Piccadilly and Pall Mall and two-way traffic will be reintroduced.
Meanwhile, the firm that planned the revamp of Oxford Circus last year (previously) reports that it’s worked out:
The Atkins-designed Oxford Circus diagonal crossing has proven an instant success with reduced pavement congestion, a doubling of walking speeds and one in six visitors using the diagonal routes.
2009-11-02
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Channel 4 News reports on the new Oxford Circus diagonal crossing (previously, previously), as well as the more general “naked roads” / “shared space” concepts.
2009-04-19
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43,000 people and 2,000 vehicles an hour: why Oxford Circus is being re-built | Architects Journal (via)
More on the Oxford Circus junction redesign, including some pretty pictures of people simulations:
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?)
