lechua photography

Welcome to Oxford Circus, the city’s shopping paradise. Oxford Street (running east to west) and Regent Street (north to south) are extremely popular amongst Londoners and tourists for their high street shops. Flagship stores of famous fashion brands such as Topshop, Next, River Island, M&S, Nike, Zara and many more, are just around the corner.

arriving at Oxford Circus station

From the Oxford Circus intersection, head west along Oxford Street towards Bond Street for the huge department stores: Debenhams, John Lewis, and the high end Selfridges between Bond Street and Marble Arch station. Head east along Oxford Street towards Tottenham Court Road for the largest HMV store in town. Going south along Regent Street will bring us to Hamleys, the city’s largest toy store before ending up at Piccadilly Circus.

United Colours of Benetton megastore at 255-259 Regent Street

black cabs of London

 the red London bus

Upon visiting Oxford Circus this time round, I was greeted with a whole new look of Oxford Circus. The newly constructed X diagonal pedestrian crossing, inspired by Tokyo’s Shibuya station crossing, was opened on 2nd November 2009. This new crossing is aimed to improve the pedestrian’s crossing experience at this cross-section, and at the same time reduce traffic congestion. There is also now a 30-second traffic freeze, when pedestrians are free to cross over to whichever side they need to.

the new X-crossing of Oxford Circus

pedestrians crossing in all directions, straight on and diagonally

pedestrians clear out for traffic crossing