Oxford Circus Pedestrian Improvements

Westminster City Council, together with its partners (Transport for London, the New West End Company), and key stakeholder - The Crown Estate, are embarking on a series of pedestrian improvements to Oxford Circus to enhance the public realm and ease the problem of overcrowding.

The improvements include:

• The provision of diagonal pedestrian crossings;
• Extending pavement widths to reduce congestion and give pedestrians more space to move;
• Removal of street clutter;
• The removal of the underground public toilets and the possible provision of accessible replacement facilities nearby;
• Resurfacing footways with high quality granite and York-stone paving.

Works to implement the scheme are scheduled to take place from April through to November 2009 and are expected to cause some localised disruption.

These improvements will be implemented in a series of phases, and will involve work on Oxford Circus, Princes Street, Little Argyll Street, John Princes Street, and Great Castle Street.

Please see a map and a video animation illustrating the phasing of the works.

The City Council is working closely with its partners, including Transport for London, to ensure that there is as little disruption as possible. Oxford Circus will remain open to traffic throughout the works, and the Underground Station will also continue to operate.

The site office and works compound will be located in Princes Street for the duration of the project. Once works are completed, this area will become a new pedestrian space and vehicular access between Regent Street and Princes Street will not be restored.

Local residents and businesses will shortly be contacted via letter to keep them informed of the work programme and any localised disruption that may affect them.

Update

The next stage will be the resurfacing of the carriageway. The extent of these works will be in Oxford Street between Great Portland Street and John Prince's Street, and along Regent Street between Great Castle Street and Hanover Street. 

To minimise disruption works are scheduled to be undertaken between 18th October and 1st November 2009, resurfacing will be carried out at night between 8pm and 5am Sunday to Wednesday and 10pm to 5am on Thursday. There are no night time closures programmed for Friday and Saturday nights.

To enable these works to take place, it will be necessary to divert all traffic in the aforementioned area, during the times specified above. General traffic and buses will be diverted to avoid the resurfacing work, details of these diversion routes can be found in the plans on this page. Delivery companies will need to make alternative arrangement whilst the diversions are in place.

 Please contact Hyder Consulting with any queries relating to these specific works or call 020 7289 7515

 For enquires about the ORB Action Plan, or for information about investing in the area, please email or call on 020 7641 3204.

Martin Low

Director of Transportation