Wednesday 14 November 2012

Revisioning Oxford Street?



I have always loved the buildings of Oxford Street. It's not the fault of the buildings if retailers and others install inappropriately designed fascias on the ground floors. The picture shows a beautifully restrained 1930s building in Soho Street that is being put under scaffolding and gutted. The buildings to the right of it, also under scaffolding, are on the corner of Soho Street and Oxford Street.

1. I wonder what is happening to the corner building – if any demolition is going on, I hope that Westminster City Council, part of whose glorious domain this is, will ensure that the new buildings will sit well with the existing fabric.

2. I wonder what is happening to the Soho Street building – it is a fine brick and Portland Stone façade with granite at the base. The ground floor fascia has been hashed about a bit and would benefit from appropriate restoration.

3 comments:

  1. Interesting. To me Oxford Street is what it is, but could maybe use improvement? That is definitely an outsider's point of view, though.

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  2. Hi, Betty,

    To me there are 2 Oxford Streets, the section from the Circus down to Marble Arch (not really my patch) and the section from the Circus to Tottenham Court Road, which I prefer and which has smaller buildings, some with beautiful gables and which, with care, could be transformed to a mini Brussels or Amsterdam in London. My dream. ;-)

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  3. PS: re the beautiful buildings, you definitely need to look upwards to see them ;p

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