A new image of the Oxford Street look [East]

ARCHITECTS have revealed the first images of designs for the part-pedestrianisation of a stretch of Oxford Street less than three weeks before vehicles will finally be banned.

Traffic will be rerouted from October 26 as part of the first phase of the transformation of the world famous shopping street. It covers a one-kilometre section from Oxford Circus to Great Portland Street near the Selfridges store.

New images published this week 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.

They said the pedestrianisation design was a “dream project”, and that staff were “delighted to be putting 30 years of high street expertise to work on the city’s most famous thoroughfare”.

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.

The scheme has been designed for the Oxford Street Development Corporation (OSDC), the planning authority established by Mayor of London Sadiq, Lord 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 City 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.