15 Aug 05: Oxford Street

After my visit to the Houses of Parliament, I decided to head for Oxford Street to get something for a friend. I have found the tube to be a convenient way to travel about London. I remember that I took the tube to Bond Street station which is situated along Oxford Street.

Oxford Street is quite a long stretch of road. According to AA Essential Guide London (6th edition), Oxford Street is described as "London's most frenetic shopping street (which) presents a cacophony of global styles and noises..."



Walking along Oxford Street

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When I walked out of the tube station, I saw a food outlet selling bagels. I decided to eat a bagel for lunch. That was filling enough to keep me away from feeling too hungry.

Since there was hardly any place for me to dine in, I asked for a take-away order of the bagel. While I ate, I also tried to look around for building numbers!

I have the exact address of the building that I was looking for. The challenge would be to find out where it is. It became a challenge because the building number on every building have not been clearly displayed. I had to try to look around for the building numbers on the various shops and buildings and then to make clever guesses as to the approximate location of that building I was looking for.

While I was looking for that particular building, Selfridges Ltd, I saw several souvenir shops along Oxford Street. I spent some time there to get souvenirs for my colleagues.

Of course, not forgetting I have a mission to be accomplished, I headed for what I had determined as the right direction towards the building. The only problem is that since the building numbers are not clearly stated out, I had no clue how far I had to walk to get to the building. So I remember the wise saying that goes "Ask and you shall receive".

I asked a passerby, but she was actually a tourist! But I must have been lucky, even though she claimed that she did not know Oxford Street well, she did know that I was just a few buildings away from Selfridges Ltd. That seemed to make my day, and I headed in excitement to the building to purchase the item. I was quite pleased with myself for not ending up lost in Oxford Street which is in the foreign lands.

Photos taken along Oxford Street taken on different days: Oxford Street

The next stop after this was Harrods. I am not quite into shopping, but the guide said that "even the most reluctant shopper should venture into its cathedral-like portals."