Oxford Street Transformation

Dan Hancox writes about Oxford Street pedestrianisation in the long read section of the Guardian - Read more here – Guardian - Everyone hates Oxford Street. Will pedestrianisation save it?

This major milestone marks the first day of a transition phase, with ongoing construction for the scheme to unfold across London’s most famous thoroughfare, turning it into a safer, greener, more accessible and more comfortable public space.

London-based architecture, landscape and urban design practice East is leading the team including J&L Gibbons, Gehl, Publica, Etude, NRP and Ubidermis to design the pedestrianisation scheme through its transition phases and the permanent scheme.

Global urban strategy and design consultancy Gehl have been carrying out research on Oxford Street to determine the carefully located constellations of new seating on the street. Renowned urban design practice Publica has led on engagement with local communities, particularly around improving the environment for women and girls. Publica is also developing the lighting design, led by Satu Streatfield, Specialist Associate for Night Time and Lighting. Acclaimed landscape architects J&L Gibbons have worked with East on the designs for tree planting, which will gradually turn the street into a climate-resilient urban forest. urbidermis and Belloch Forestal are collaborating on the project’s approach to seating design and manufacturing.

East and the wider team were appointed by the Greater London Authority in December 2025, alongside architects Hawkins\Brown who have been developing a long-term design vision for the whole street, from Marble Arch to Tottenham Court Road.

Construction of the permanent transformation of the section between Orchard Street and Great Portland Street is expected to begin later in 2027, with completion anticipated in 2028.

East is an award-winning architecture, landscape and urban design practice. Based in east London, they have thirty years of experience and an international reputation for designing brilliant public spaces. They have worked extensively across London – with major high street and masterplan projects in Kentish Town, Whitechapel, Eltham, Wood Green, Beckton and many other neighbourhoods – as well as throughout the UK and Europe. The directors of East are Julian Lewis, Judith Lösing and Dann Jessen.

Julian Lewis, director, East, says:

“As we have seen from Borough High Street to Eltham, from Croydon to Green Lanes, London’s high streets are the public face of the city in all its diversity, its greenery and its energy. We design to preserve and support this energy, maintaining the ebbs and flows of these places which make our neighbourhoods unique. The same is true at Oxford Street – the place where ‘Everything glitters and twinkles’, as Virginia Woolf wrote in 1931 – a street whose future is set to be as dynamic and bustling as its storied past.”

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