HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Oxford Circus
OR:
Oxford Circus on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

Oxford Circus is a
road junction A junction is where two or more roads meet. History Roads began as a means of linking locations of interest: towns, forts and geographic features such as river fords. Where roads met outside of an existing settlement, these junctions often led ...
connecting
Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and as ...
and
Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash and James Burton. It runs from Waterloo Place ...
in the
West End of London The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, in which many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buil ...
. It is also the entrance to
Oxford Circus tube station Oxford Circus is a London Underground station serving Oxford Circus at the junction of Regent Street and Oxford Street, with entrances on all four corners of the intersection. The station is an interchange between the Bakerloo, Central and Vi ...
. The junction opened in 1819 as part of the Regent Street development under John Nash, and was originally known as Regent Circus North. After the original lease expired, it was redesigned around a series of four quadrant buildings by Henry Tanner between 1913 and 1928, the north-eastern of which has been used by Peter Robinson,
Topshop TOPSHOP (originally Top Shop) is a British fashion brand for women's clothing, shoes and accessories. It was part of the Arcadia Group, controlled by Sir Philip Green, but went into administration in late 2020 before being purchased by ASOS o ...
, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
and the
London Co-operative Society The London Co-operative Society (LCS) was a consumer co-operative society in the United Kingdom. History The Society was formed in September 1920 by the amalgamation of the Stratford Co-operative Society and the Edmonton Co-operative Society, ...
; these are now
Grade II listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
. Oxford Circus remains a busy junction for traffic, and a £5 million upgrade for pedestrians opened in 2009. It has also attracted attention as a place for demonstrations and protests, including several by
Extinction Rebellion Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated as XR) is a global environmental movement, with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk o ...
.


History


19th century

The junction was designed as part of John Nash's work on
Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash and James Burton. It runs from Waterloo Place ...
. Circuses had become popular in English architecture after
George Dance the Younger George Dance the Younger RA (1 April 1741 – 14 January 1825) was an English architect and surveyor as well as a portraitist. The fifth and youngest son of the architect George Dance the Elder, he came from a family of architects, artists a ...
had popularised them in the
Minories Minories ( ) is the name of a small former administrative unit, and also of a street in central London. Both the street and the former administrative area take their name from the Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate. Both are ...
in East London. Nash wanted to use extra land space so that vehicles could move around one another when turning, with a concave layout attracting shopkeepers and increasing the potential for land value. He originally intended the circus to be
colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...
d, but when the New Street Bill was proposed to parliament, it was rejected, with one MP fearing the circus would "be a nuisance by day and something worse by night". He redesigned the circus so that the new Regent Street would meet the established Oxford Street at a near right-angle, with a smaller diameter reducing its land intake. Parliament approved the design in 1813. Construction of the circus began in 1816, with Nash working in association with Samuel Baxter. Work was complicated by the
compulsory purchase Compulsion may refer to: * Compulsive behavior, a psychological condition in which a person does a behavior compulsively, having an overwhelming feeling that they must do so. * Obsessive–compulsive disorder, a mental disorder characterized by ...
of properties along Oxford Street. Eight houses on the north side and eleven on the south were demolished to make way for the junction. To avoid legal challenges, Nash attempted to rehouse existing tenants in the new buildings around the circus wherever possible. After John Richardson, proprietor of Richardson's silk shop on 118 Oxford Street died, Nash ensured his widow and surviving family and employees were all housed in a building on the circus's north-eastern section. After the family complained and demanded changes, Nash worked with Baxter to try to accommodate them as much as possible. Most buildings around the circus were designed in a more disciplined manner than some of Nash's later work, and were based on
Palladian architecture Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...
. They featured
fluted Fluting may refer to: *Fluting (architecture) * Fluting (firearms) * Fluting (geology) * Fluting (glacial) *Fluting (paper) Arts, entertainment, and media *Fluting on the Hump ''Fluting on the Hump'' is the first album by avant-garde band Kin ...
Corinthian Corinthian or Corinthians may refer to: *Several Pauline epistles, books of the New Testament of the Bible: **First Epistle to the Corinthians **Second Epistle to the Corinthians **Third Epistle to the Corinthians (Orthodox) *A demonym relating to ...
pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
s and artificial stone capitals. The pilaster order continued down Regent Street. The circus opened officially in November 1819. It was originally known as Regent Circus North, with the corresponding Piccadilly Circus named Regent Circus South. However, unlike Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus had no decorations and was designed as a straightforward traffic crossing. Fellow architect
James Elmes James Elmes (15 October 1782, London – 2 April 1862, Greenwich) was an English architect, civil engineer, and writer on the arts. Biography Elmes was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, and, after studying building under his father, and ar ...
described Nash's work on the circus as giving "an air of grandeur" and "as elegant in form as it is useful in application". The current name began to be used around 1836. In 1842, the MP
Joseph Hume Joseph Hume FRS (22 January 1777 – 20 February 1855) was a Scottish surgeon and Radical MP.Ronald K. Huch, Paul R. Ziegler 1985 Joseph Hume, the People's M.P.: DIANE Publishing. Early life He was born the son of a shipmaster James Hume ...
proposed a commemorative
obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by Anc ...
should be constructed in the middle of the circus. Construction began in December 1842, but was quickly disrupted and abandoned after the Marylebone parish
vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...
realised they only had authority to clean and maintain the circus, and not to construct anything on top of it. The obelisk was eventually built in 1850 at
Nunhead Cemetery Nunhead Cemetery is one of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries in London, England. It is perhaps the least famous and celebrated of them. The cemetery is located in Nunhead in the London Borough of Southwark and was originally known as All Saints ...
to a slightly different design. In the Victorian era,
mourning Mourning is the expression of an experience that is the consequence of an event in life involving loss, causing grief, occurring as a result of someone's death, specifically someone who was loved although loss from death is not exclusively ...
was elaborate and expensive. This area had
mourning warehouse A mourning warehouse or ''maison de deuil'' was a shop which sold goods for funerals and the elaborate mourning of the Victorian era. These included dark clothing and fabric which might be required for years of wear after a death. These establi ...
s, selling the clothes, fabrics and accessories required for this. The most important of these was
the London General Mourning Warehouse The London General Mourning Warehouse was a mourning warehouse on Regent Street. It was established by William Chickall Jay in 1841 and so it was commonly known as Jay's. It sold all types of goods needed for funerals and the elaborate mournin ...
, commonly known as Jay's. This was founded in Regent Street in 1841 and expanded north so that it occupied all of the SW quadrant of the circus by 1880.


20th century

The lease on the four quadrants around the interchange was due to expire in 1917, and it was determined they would need to be rebuilt. In 1904, the
Commissioners of Woods and Forests The Commissioners of Woods, Forests and Land Revenues were established in the United Kingdom in 1810 by merging the former offices of Surveyor General of Woods, Forests, Parks, and Chases and Surveyor General of the Land Revenues of the Crown in ...
outlined a plan to redevelop Regent Street, including Oxford Circus. In 1909, they invited proposals to redevelop the site. The new design was awarded in October 1910 to Henry Tanner, who saw off several rival designs, and was built in stages between 1913 and 1928. Tanner's design was inspired by 18th-century French architecture, particularly that of
Ange-Jacques Gabriel Ange-Jacques Gabriel (23 October 1698 – 4 January 1782) was the principal architect of King Louis XV of France. His major works included the Place de la Concorde, the École Militaire, and the Petit Trianon and opera theater at the Palace of Ve ...
. Each quadrant was designed to be symmetrical with the others. The south-eastern quadrant was completed first in 1913, before work stopped at the beginning of
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. The north-western quadrant opened in May 1922 as the London premises for the Magasins du Louvre. The store was never popular and closed in 1930. The south-western quadrant followed in 1925 and the north-eastern in 1928. The new north-eastern quadrant was originally occupied by the Peter Robinson department store. An extension to the store was added to the original quadrant building in 1924. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, it was badly damaged by bombs in September 1940 but survived owing to its steel frame construction and was quickly repaired to a high standard. The
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
requisitioned part of the block and it saw significant use in overseas broadcasting during the war. It was sold to the
London Co-operative Society The London Co-operative Society (LCS) was a consumer co-operative society in the United Kingdom. History The Society was formed in September 1920 by the amalgamation of the Stratford Co-operative Society and the Edmonton Co-operative Society, ...
in 1944. Through a series of buyouts and mergers, Peter Robinson became
Topshop TOPSHOP (originally Top Shop) is a British fashion brand for women's clothing, shoes and accessories. It was part of the Arcadia Group, controlled by Sir Philip Green, but went into administration in late 2020 before being purchased by ASOS o ...
, which occupied the site until January 2021, after it went into liquidation. It was the flagship store of the franchise, covering four floors and attracting around 28,000 shoppers a day, half of whom would buy something. The buildings are constructed of
Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building sto ...
with a cladding steel frame and slate roofs. They have been Grade II listed since 1973.


Tube station

The
tube station The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The Und ...
opened on 30 July 1900 when the first section of the Central line opened. A connection to the
Bakerloo line The Bakerloo line () is a London Underground line that goes from in suburban north-west London to in south London, via the West End. Printed in brown on the Tube map, it serves 25 stations, 15 of which are underground, over . It runs partly ...
opened on 10 March 1906; the station was modified below ground to accommodate this. For five years from 1963 as part of connecting the tube station to the
Victoria line The Victoria line is a London Underground line that runs between in south London and in the north-east, via the West End. It is printed in light blue on the Tube map and is one of the only two lines on the network to run completely undergr ...
, the road surface was carried on a temporary 850-ton umbrella bridge, accommodating all four directions of travel while work continued underneath. This was dismantled on 12 April 1968. In 1976, a bomb planted by the
Provisional IRA The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...
was detected at the station and successfully defused. The station was badly damaged by
fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition ...
in November 1984, but there were no fatalities.


Traffic

Oxford Circus is one of the busiest pedestrian crossings in London. In 1924, shipbuilder
Alfred Yarrow Sir Alfred Fernandez Yarrow, 1st Baronet, (13 January 1842 – 24 January 1932) was a British shipbuilder who started a shipbuilding dynasty, Yarrow Shipbuilders. Origins Yarrow was born of humble origins in East London, the son of Esther ...
proposed building a
grade-separated junction A grade-separated junction is a transport junction where at least one bridge or tunnel is used to separate traffic flows (known as grade separation). Relevant articles include: * Road interchanges Interchange may refer to: Transport * Interch ...
to segregate traffic, paid for by his own funds. The offer was turned down by Westminster City Council. In 1935, Westminster City Council proposed fitting pedestrian guard rails at the junction, restricting crossing in order to improve safety. At the end of the 2000s, Oxford Circus had the highest pedestrian volumes recorded anywhere in London. At the busiest times, over 40,000 pedestrians per hour pass through the junction, including those accessing the tube station. The average traffic flow is around 2,000 vehicles per hour during the week, and the junction operates at near capacity for most of the day with regular queues, particularly west along Oxford Street. 24 bus routes pass through Oxford Circus, and over 400 buses cross the junction on an average weekday. There are bus stops within on every arm of the crossing. In 2009, Transport for London redesigned the intersection to facilitate a
pedestrian scramble A pedestrian scramble, also known as scramble intersection and scramble corner (Canada), 'X' Crossing (UK), diagonal crossing (US), (Japan), exclusive pedestrian interval, or Barnes Dance, is a type of traffic signal movement that temporarily s ...
. The crossing opened in November and cost around £5 million. It was inspired by street crossings in
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
, and opened by the
Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...
,
Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
, who called the scheme "a triumph for British engineering, Japanese innovation and good old fashioned common sense". The scheme added an additional of pedestrian space and removed the guard rail, adding 70% more capacity to the crossing.


Events

In February 1872, a tripartite arch made of flowers and decorated with flags was erected in the middle of Oxford Circus, to commemorate the
Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
's recovery from
typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...
.
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
passed along the parade with the Prince to a crowd of cheering children. On 20 December 1938, 50 people took part in an unemployment protest staged in Oxford Circus. Campaigners threw themselves into the road shouting "We want work, we want bread", before being restrained by police. On 1 May 2001, an anti-capitalism demonstration converging on Oxford Circus broke into violence. Police attempted to contain the crowd in the circus, but 50–60 demonstrators broke free and started destroying property and set fire to a nearby shop. Along with 3,000 others, Lois Austin was kept kettled in the circus for around 7 hours. She later appealed to the
European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that a ...
. On 26 March 2011, around 500,000 protested against government public service cuts in London. At Oxford Circus, they clashed with
riot police Riot police are police who are organized, deployed, trained or equipped to confront crowds, protests or riots. Riot police may be regular police who act in the role of riot police in particular situations or they may be separate units organize ...
. On Black Friday, 24 November 2017, the
Oxford Circus panic The Oxford Circus panic or Oxford Street panic was a human stampede in Oxford Circus tube station and surrounding streets in London, United Kingdom, around 16:38 GMT on Friday 24 November 2017, in which 16 people were injured. The incident began ...
broke out after a fight in Oxford Circus tube station turned into a mass stampede. The area was busy and commuters and shoppers took refuge in shops. The Metropolitan Police later announced it would stand down the response. In April 2019, the environmental group
Extinction Rebellion Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated as XR) is a global environmental movement, with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk o ...
protested by blockading Oxford Circus. Protesters chained themselves to the road, and the
Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...
drafted additional police officers to help clear the area, who helped tear down a pink boat named after the environmental activist
Berta Cáceres Berta Isabel Cáceres Flores (; 4 March 1971 – 2 March 2016) was a Honduran (Lenca) environmental activist, indigenous leader, and co-founder and coordinator of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). She won ...
. In October, protesters erected a giant wooden pyramid structure in the centre of the circus, which had to be dismantled by a JCB. In August 2019, a protest against the imprisonment of far-right extremist Tommy Robinson at the circus descended into violence. A man was arrested for
actual bodily harm Assault occasioning actual bodily harm (often abbreviated to Assault OABH, AOABH or simply ABH) is a statutory offence of aggravated assault in England and Wales, Northern Ireland, the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Hong Kong and th ...
.


References


Citations


Sources

* * * * *


External links

{{commons category-inline Oxford Street Road junctions in London