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‘Don’t stop, shop!’ could be Oxford Street’s strapline, but then there’s not much worth seeing here anyway. Emerging from Tottenham Court Road tube station at the east end of the street brings you out beneath the unmistakable honeycomb of the Centrepoint tower. Walking west you have to squeeze along the street’s busiest, scruffiest and most second-rate stretch. Hanway Street, just up on the right, is a curious little alley of private drinking clubs, secondhand record shops and Spanish bars and restaurants. Apart from a few good shops there’s nothing remarkable until the horrendously busy crossroad of Oxford Circus. Any of the roads off left lead into Soho; those to the right into Fitzrovia. Beyond Oxford Circus, Oxford Street begins to acquire the dignity the of capital’s High Street thanks to Selfridges and the distant view of Marble Arch.
Sights
Marble Arch
M Marble Arch or Bond St.
Apart from the great early 20th-century Ionic block of Selfridges, a sight in itself, the only other real sight Oxford Street has to offer is Marble Arch. Designed by John Nash in 1827 to stand in front of Buckingham Palace, it wasn’t quite grand enough and was moved to this site on the edge of Hyde Park 25 years later, eventually stranded in the middle of a hectic roundabout. Nearby, on Sundays, Speakers’ Corner has been providing a spot for any budding orator to let off steam since the middle of the 19th century. Nowadays the soap boxes are dominated by religious extremists and speakers with more passion than eloquence, but some still draw surprisingly large and attentive crowds.
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