Oxford Street, London 1972

This photograph captures the western stretch of Oxford Street during one of its most disruptive but important periods of change. The view looks towards Marble Arch, taken just outside Bond Street Underground station, which at the time was undergoing major reconstruction for the new Fleet Line — later renamed the Jubilee Line. The temporary pedestrian deck and traffic ramp dominate the foreground, funnelling people across the road while construction continued beneath.

A Renault 4 can be seen heading down the ramp, an unusual sight on Oxford Street and a reminder of how dramatically the works altered the normal flow of traffic. On the right, a passing Routemaster carries an advert for Real English Cheese, the type of bold, straightforward product marketing that was common on London buses in the early ’70s.

To the left, hoardings screen off the excavation works around Davies Street, while in the distance the façade of Selfridges rises above the stream of red buses and black cabs. The stretch of buildings here — including several 1960s and early-20th-century shopfronts — would later be dramatically redeveloped, but in 1972 Oxford Street still mixed Edwardian red-brick, post-war modernism and the lively street life of the pre-pedestrianisation era.

It’s a perfect snapshot of the period: construction dust, busy crowds, constant traffic and the sense of a city reshaping itself beneath the pavement.