The Buses
On 26 October 2026, Oxford Street closed to traffic from Orchard Street to Great Portland Street. Regent Street still crosses at Oxford Circus. The layout is temporary until spring 2027.
Oxford Street closed. The circus is still a junction.
On the morning of Monday 26 October, almost a kilometre of Oxford Street closed to cars, buses, taxis, bicycles, and pedicabs. The stretch runs from Orchard Street, by Selfridges, to Great Portland Street, just east of Oxford Circus. Transport for London started the diversions at 20:00 GMT on Sunday 25 October, between Portman Street and Winsley Street.
North-south traffic still crosses at Oxford Circus. Regent Street was not pedestrianised. The famous junction is still a junction.
The Oxford Street Development Corporation calls this the first phase of a permanent change. Seating and planting are due through spring 2027. The corporation says the finished design will use what the street actually does in that time. A temporary layout is not the square in the drawings.
The mayor's decision, MD3475, was signed on 26 February 2026. It directed TfL to remove traffic on that stretch. A detailed consultation on the traffic changes, from 21 November 2025 to 16 January 2026, drew 2,716 responses. An earlier consultation on the principle of pedestrianising the street is a different exercise. The BBC reported that 63 percent of Londoners favoured regeneration in that earlier round. The Standard reported 66 percent support among people who answered a pedestrianisation question. Those percentages are not the same poll. Neither is a vote of the people who live on the side streets.
Westminster City Council has objected on displaced traffic, noise, and access. London TravelWatch is broadly in favour, and wants the cycling diversions and disability access watched as the temporary layout becomes the only layout.
This is a traffic order. It is not a finished public square, and it is not a claim that the shopping street got quieter for everyone who has to go around it.
Key Facts
- Traffic-free from the morning of 26 October 2026
- Orchard Street to Great Portland Street, almost one kilometre
- Regent Street still crosses at Oxford Circus
- Diversions began at 20:00 GMT on 25 October
- Mayoral decision MD3475, signed 26 February 2026
- Detailed consultation: 2,716 responses
Why This Matters
The picture is a bus that is not there. The argument is the street behind it, where the traffic went. Years of abandoned schemes ended in a specific closure, on a specific morning, with the junction left open on purpose.
What We Don't Know Yet
How much traffic moved onto the side streets on day one. Whether disabled access holds once the temporary layout is the only way through. Do not merge the 63 percent and the 66 percent. They are different questions.