Episode 10 Oxford Street Revealed

It's the most famous shopping street in the world,

in the heart of Britain's capital city.

A mile and a half long with 30 million visitors each year.

With some of the world's most famous shops... CHEERING

-..biggest stars...

-Kate Moss!

-CHEERING

..and busiest stations.

Sorry, guys, stand back for me!

What does it take to keep it running 24 hours a day...

Busiest street in the world so it needs constant attention.

..seven days a week?

Oi! Clear off!

You're going to be arrested on suspicion of attempted theft.

Are you ready, London?

A street that never sleeps.

This sort of thing wouldn't happen anywhere else.

Oxford Street.

Coming up, dodgy vehicles,

drunks and rooftop intruders.

Police! Just come down here!

An Oxford Street policeman has a shift to remember.

Nutcases.

John Lewis unveils its latest weapon to pull in the customers.

Welcome to the summer retreat.

The secret world of bicycle couriers.

Yes, we're cutting it tight.

We need to pull out the hat for these people.

And the giant new station being built under Oxford Street.

We need to run this like a military operation.

With over 30 million visitors a year from hundreds of countries spending

billions of pounds, there's never a dull moment on Oxford Street.

The street's police team, known as ORB, know their shifts can

take in anything and everything, from bomb scares...

It's empty.

It could have been a bomb.

..to concerned tourists reporting dead bodies.

Just repeat that.

Excuse me, it's the police. Excuse me! Hello?

He's moving. He's fine and well. He was just asleep.

The special demands of the street means it's vital uniformed officers

have good people skills and an approachable character.

And aiming to fit that bill is PC Barry Nicholls.

He's been a policeman for a year and a half

and comes from a long line of family members in public service.

I've got two older brothers in the police service actually at the

moment, and my father was London Ambulance for most of his career.

Definitely proud of the service. It's a privilege.

Today, his ten-hour shift will see him

put all his people skills to the test.

The first problems he has to deal with are alcohol-related.

At Oxford Circus, halfway down the street, a homeless man is drinking

on the pavement outside clothes shop Benetton, a strict no-no.

Barry needs him gone.

You can either drink that up...

or we can pour it away,

but you need to do it now and then we can move you on, mate.

He's drinking in a controlled drinking zone.

It's an issue on this area at the moment and we're trying to

clamp down on it a bit.

We do have the power just to take it and pour it away,

but obviously that's a bit brutal. Sometimes it is necessary.

Do you want to knock it back or shall we pour it away?

I've got stuff to do, yeah?

And just on the back of that, if I see you drinking again today,

I will be confiscating it.

All right, mate.

With a touch of patience, Barry has got what he wanted all along -

to move the man away from Oxford Street.

What you could see there was a very ill man.

The last place he needs to be is a custody suite.

Further down the street there's another man who's had one too many.

You all right there, sir?

Hello, mate! You OK?

-SLURRED:

-Yeah, I reckon...

Um...

The man, just out of the army, has been sick and is in a bad way.

-You can't hardly string a sentence together.

-Yup. I agree.

And... And all I'm worried about, yeah, all I'm simply just here for,

if you like, is that I suppose I'm a little bit concerned,

in a way, how you're going to get home safely.

-Yeah?

-Yup.

-So what is the plan?

Get on to the next, um...

..er, bus without hurting anyone.

All right. You're coming round a bit now, I can see that. All right?

-Thank you, Sergeant.

-I'll leave you to it, mate, yeah?

Satisfied the man is no danger to himself or others,

Barry leaves him and continues his shift.

As the rain starts to fall,

he teams up with fellow officer Daniel Sinclair.

This being Oxford Street,

they have to keep an eye out for anything which might cause a problem.

And with his eyes on the road, Barry spots something potentially serious.

-What are you doing, Barry?

-I just want to...

You all right, mate? How did you get the damage on your car?

When was this?

Yeah, could you just pull over after the lights, mate? Cheers.

The side of the car has been smashed and has jagged edges.

Barry is worried it could hurt a pedestrian.

-Seeing you've got damage to the near side of the car...

-Yeah.

Just wanted to stop and see what was going on, really.

When did this happen?

Barry thinks that's a long time to be driving a potentially

dangerous vehicle around.

If it hit someone, it would cause significant damage to a person.

Personally, I don't think that the vehicle's safe to be...

To be driving down the road, really.

Barry wants the car off the road and nowhere near Oxford Street,

but he's not sure he has sufficiently legal grounds.

So he plans on getting a second opinion from an expert.

I've just pulled over a car that's all smashed in on the nearside

front end.

Is there any traffic unit that can assist?

Help is on its way.

Traffic officers have the power to prohibit

a vehicle from using the roads.

In my opinion it's not roadworthy, but at the end of the day

what we're doing now is getting a traffic unit down

and they will have the final say on it.

The owner is insisting the police have previously checked

and OK'd the car.

Could Barry be wrong for stopping him?

Well, it's a very subjective thing, really. But in my...

-I'm not arguing with you, I'm...

-No, no, that's fine, that's fine.

I just pointing out the fact...

I'm just saying that in my opinion,

if you hit a pedestrian even at 5mph...

-OK.

-..with that, you're going to do some serious damage.

-Whereas if that wasn't like that...

-Yeah.

-..things would be a lot different.

-All right.

If the traffic officers agree with the driver,

then Barry will have wasted everyone's time.

It's a nervous wait.

-Is this hers?

-No.

Later, we'll see if Barry's suspicions are correct.

A visit to Oxford Street is a very different experience today to

how it would have been even ten years ago.

It's no longer just about bustling streets and wall-to-wall shopping.

The aim recently has been to increase its appeal as a place of leisure,

somewhere you can go to grab a drink or a meal while out shopping.

So more and more, the shops are turning their efforts

to creating the sort of places people can relax in.

And about to play his part in doing that today is gardener Tony Woods.

OK, we've got red verbena for the pots outside Rossopomodoro.

Everything else is just going to fill in these little gaps

that have appeared around the outside bed.

At the moment, Tony

and his team are coming to the end of a very special commission.

They've been brought into design John Lewis's Oxford Street

roof garden for the summer.

John Lewis only opened it last year

and went with a traditional English theme.

This year they're going tropical, and today, for Tony's team,

it's sign-off day.

This is our biggest urban garden design project.

It's probably one of the biggest public roof gardens in London.

Most of it is done, but Tony

and his team will have an hour for finishing touches this morning before

the bigwigs from the store inspect the garden and say if they're happy.

This year's design themes have had to be adjusted or redesigned

or amended, and as we do that the timescale for completion get

shorter and shorter, so the stress levels build enormously.

Creating a garden on the fifth floor of any building is unusual,

and the top of a working department store even more so.

We're just unloading some plants and ready to go, basically.

Filippo is one of our new members of staff.

He is a good helper, so like one of the Three Musketeers, like.

Morning. Sorry.

Trying to pay for parking by mobile phone.

-OK, you've got the plants in here.

-Yeah.

I've got the tools and we've got all our irrigation kit ready to go.

-Upstairs.

-OK, great, let's go.

Before the garden can be signed off,

the team need to remove any dead bits of foliage, check the irrigation

system is working and plant the final few tropical flowers.

Welcome to the summer retreat.

It's feeling tropical.

It's nearly done. Unfortunately, the London weather has let us down.

Not quite as tropical.

Um, but you can see that, ultimately, it doesn't look like

you're in Oxford Street and we've injected a bit of a holiday feel.

The garden is meant to feel like a subtropical island retreat.

Tony and his team have installed over 1,000 plants

from 40 different species.

We've got lots of tropical plants, lots of architectural foliage

and bright flowers.

Things that you probably wouldn't normally find on a roof.

The team get to work.

Guys, we've got just under 20 minutes now, so final checks.

Deadheading, take any burnished leaves off that you can see...

Later, plants go in as John Lewis come out for sign-off.

We've got five minutes. They're on the way up now.

Oxford Street isn't just a shopper's paradise.

The area is one of London's creative and business hubs.

Hundreds of officers, advertising agencies, fashion magazines

and filmmakers are densely packed

into the roads to the north and south.

In this fast paced world, the post is much too slow.

If a company wants to move a document or hard drive across town

in half an hour, there's only one option.

The fastest way through the traffic and crowds is by bicycle.

119, yeah. Got some more, Rog.

This is the control room of one of the largest

courier companies in London, and Martin is one of the controllers.

Every day of the week we get busy. From nine till six o'clock,

it is absolute chaos. Controlled chaos, I will say.

Friday, and we've got more work than we can possibly handle.

Deliveries are made by van,

motorcycle or one of their 35 bike messengers.

Drop the one you're doing, collect this one

I'm sending you now. Sending you details of Deutsche Bank, yeah?

Deutsche Bank.

Bicycle couriers are a key cog in the silent infrastructure that

keeps the capital's business world working.

They work mostly around the city's financial district and the West End.

We've got a lot of riders on Oxford Street all day long.

It links up the entirety of the West End -

it goes from one side to the other.

If not the busiest street in London,

it's one of the best ones to get around as well.

It's Martin's job to match each of the day's hundreds of packages

to one of his three dozen riders.

One of those is Johnny.

All right, Johnny? Morning, morning, morning!

Roger-Roger.

Top of Oxford Street as per usual.

We should have a nice busy day for you.

It's not long before Martin gets a booking,

and he radios Johnny through the first pickup of the day.

208, 208, Johnny.

Get yourself to Broadwick Street, Broadwick Street.

We're going to get you going from there, Roger.

And Johnny is on his bike. Riders are self-employed and he is paid per job.

If he wants to make a living,

he's got to meet strict targets that he sets himself.

If you do 25 a day, you can expect to be earning over 350 a week.

If you can see halfway through the day that your going to

struggle to get 20 jobs, then your stress levels increase

and you're wondering where the work's going to come from.

Originally from Manchester, Johnny trained

and worked as a lab technician before his love of bikes

and the outdoors lured him into the world of bike couriering.

But before he's got the first delivery under his belt today,

Johnny's plan is changed.

'208, 208, Johnny.'

Just come back to Picton Place, Picton Place.

A new booking has come through

and the pickup address is on Johnny's route. He gets going.

Cycle couriers can ride up to 80 miles in a day,

the distance from Manchester to Coventry.

Yes, thanks a lot, cheers.

Packages should be picked up and delivered within

an hour of booking, so Johnny is back on his way to that first job.

Once again, he's redirected.

Sometimes you never know quite what the controller is doing.

I still haven't picked up the one in Soho, so I need to get on with it.

Johnny must trust that Martin is doing the right thing,

as it is his job to make sure all the riders are working efficiently.

If he's seen an opportunity for a rider to do two jobs at once,

he can and will reroute them.

OK, so, actually this is quite good. I've got something in Picton Place.

And it's going to Broadwick Street, which is

where I've actually got a pickup which I haven't done yet.

Johnny is in and out of the roads around Oxford Street.

He has a target of three parcels an hour minimum

if he is to make enough money.

I really think we need to get the first one on board,

because it's been over half an hour.

Finally, he does just that, arriving at Hearst,

one of the country's largest magazine publishers.

A bit late.

I think ideally they want it picked up within 20 minutes,

but he sent me three other jobs since then.

So I'm actually dropping one off

to the first pick-up.

He might have been slightly held up,

but thanks to Martin's logistical skills,

he can drop off one package and pick up another at the next desk.

Martin's plan has worked.

Later, as the Friday afternoon jobs mount up,

the pressure to hit deadlines and targets increases.

One within half an hour would be fine,

but a struggle with both of them.

Get yourself moving, all right?

Earlier on, we saw ORB police officer Barry Nicholls stop this vehicle.

It's been involved in an accident some weeks ago

and Barry suspects it's a danger to the public with these sharp edges.

Barry's not sure if the car can be prohibited,

and he's waiting for traffic officers to arrive and check the vehicle.

If he's wrong, he'll have delayed the driver for nothing

on one of the city's busiest streets.

But the first cops on the scene aren't from traffic.

This being Oxford Street, there's a passing VIP.

Finally, it's the traffic officers.

They'll now have to decide if the car is roadworthy.

If you'd have hit any pedestrian with that,

they'd be instantly shredded.

That is absolutely dangerous.

Barry was right - this car has dangerous faults.

"Dangerous body parts at his front and near-side quarter wing

"and head lamp cluster.

"Has both plastic and metal sharp edges,

"likely to cause more injury than necessary."

Not impressed at all.

The traffic team are clear about what happens now.

The vehicle has to be taken off the road.

It cannot be put back on the road until it is repaired

and then the driver will be reported for certain driving offences.

The traffic officers give the driver the bad news.

He'll have to pay for a recovery vehicle

and get his car taken to a mechanic for fixing and that's not all.

He could get £100 fine and three points,

or if they think it's serious enough,

he'll be called before the court to answer for the offence.

This is a dangerous vehicle off the road.

As you can see, Oxford Street is just over there.

Loads of people walking around.

We've just made that area that little bit safer.

The dangerous car is finally leaving the street in the only safe way -

up on the bed of a tow truck,

so there's no risk to people at street level.

Barry's firm but fair approach has paid dividends.

But he's not always so gentle when it comes to people breaking the law.

Last year, when police were chasing a drug dealer,

Barry saw him hiding in this West End store...

..and pounced.

The suspect has been found, lost sight of, found again,

lost sight of and eventually disappears altogether.

I've seen him and myself and a special constable ran at him

and obviously tackled him into the display cabinet,

which was unfortunately unavoidable.

He's been searched and he's had several wraps of heroin

that he's stuffed into his mouth.

It's earned him the nickname "Barry the Bulldozer".

But whether helping individuals in trouble or bringing down criminals,

Barry is happy to do whatever has to be done.

Back out on Oxford Street,

Barry's shift continues.

And it's not long before a call comes in that could be serious.

Barry gets moving.

Later, we find out who's responsible.

-Hey, man, how's it going?

-Just north of Oxford Street,

Johnny is back in the saddle and dodging pedestrians and taxis

as he tries to hit his target

of making a minimum of 20 deliveries a day.

-HORN HONKS

-It's a red light.

Since their heyday in the '80s and '90s, when there were thousands,

the number of cycle couriers in London has declined

to only a few hundred.

High-speed internet has replaced much of their work,

but for some clients with something physical needing urgent delivery,

they're still the only option.

Cycling at speed through London is a dangerous job.

Nine cycle couriers are known to have died on the roads

in the last 30 years.

You hear on a weekly basis that somebody's walked out

in front of a courier, a black taxi has opened up a door

on a bike rider, so it can be a bit of a jungle.

Martin can't spend long worrying,

as his own workload increases with a flurry of orders.

Negative, sir, negative. I haven't got a signature.

2-1-1 is just asking how we're getting on.

We're getting quite busy this afternoon now.

Friday afternoon is always frantic as businesses move packages

before the weekend and with so much to do,

Martin's instructions to Johnny are getting more and more complicated.

Going to have to spin you around, mate, will have to spin you around.

If I knew the job was there, I would have sent it down to you earlier.

I'm going to go that way and he's sent me to pick up that way

with a job going further that way.

I've still got one over there, so doing a bit of a loop.

Obviously, he's not a happy bunny,

but that's Johnny being spun around and doing this one.

Johnny has three parcels in his bag waiting for delivery,

but with the clock ticking, he's being made to wait for pick-up

by the current client because their parcel isn't ready.

It gets frustrating sometimes.

Once you've got a load of stuff on board,

you want to just carry on moving, keep going.

But while Johnny's going nowhere, for Martin, the jobs are piling up.

A very urgent one coming, going down to Companies House,

so Bravo 2-0-8, 2-0-8.

This goes a little bit out of your way,

but obviously it's for a top-end client

and it's going to Companies House,

so I'm going to need someone on this who knows what they're doing.

Customers for whom an hour door to door is simply too slow

can pay extra for priority delivery,

bumping their package to the top of the queue.

Johnny's got to get to the pick-up location and take the parcel

to its destination, Companies House, within half an hour,

but that's two miles away

and he's still stuck waiting just off Oxford Street in Kingly Street.

Yeah, 2-0-8, Kingly Street, Kingly Street.

I've just had a tap on the shoulder. That one's cancelled.

Roger, yeah. I was just waiting for him to bring it,

but they haven't brought it, so yep, I'll carry on, Roger.

That means Johnny can get on with his priority Companies House delivery.

From where Johnny was, he'll be able to pick up in five-ten minutes,

drop time of that is about 15. Yes, we're cutting it tight,

but this is why they pay extra for the service.

Proving once more that the quickest way around the city is pedal power,

Johnny makes it to the pick-up point just in time.

-Thanks a lot, see you later.

-But when he gets there,

it turns out there's not just one priority package for him to deliver.

I've got two priorities in fairly different locations.

One within half an hour would be fine,

but a struggle with both of them, but I'll do my best.

A premium-rate client, a high-end client is paying the money

for this job and he was the only person available to do the job.

We need to pull it out the hat for these people.

Johnny has to put his skills to the test again,

but weaves through Oxford Street traffic in time

to drop off the first priority within the time limit.

He's then got to sprint to Companies House for the second.

Yeah, the traffic's pretty bad, so at this stage, I'm late.

Despite arriving a few minutes after the promised half-hour slot,

the documents are delivered safely

and Johnny can take it a bit easier,

delivering his last few non-priority packages.

And the good news is it looks like he's surpassed his 20-job target.

Thanks very much for that, yeah?

And thanks for sorting out those premiums as well.

-Done me a right favour there, Roge.

-I kept on getting jobs.

Done over 25. Didn't feel like hard work today, it felt like fun.

It's been a manic Friday for Martin and his riders,

delivering over 800 parcels.

He and Johnny are part of a force that goes unnoticed

by most of the street's visitors, but one that's crucial

to keeping Oxford Street and the area around it working.

On the fifth floor of John Lewis,

Tony Woods and his team are putting the finishing touches

to the shop's summer roof garden ahead of sign-off from the store.

The project's a big deal for John Lewis.

The previous year's roof garden hosted 160,000 shoppers.

This year, they're expecting between 1,500 and 3,000

to visit it every day.

It will only be up for three months, but during that period,

the flowers need to be kept watered.

So they don't have to come back and water every day,

they've installed an irrigation system.

Here is very sunny and windy, so if we don't water everything properly,

they're going to last for very few days.

So this environmentally-friendly, low-pressure dripper system

needs to be kept in tip-top condition.

It's on a timer to give the plants a drink once in the morning

and once every evening.

Designing a garden for a fifth-floor store

is all about keeping it low-maintenance.

This is probably one of the hardest gardens for us to maintain,

because of the sheer volume of visitors,

the plants, a lot of wear and tear for the ground materials as well.

Cos we're on the roof garden,

things like snails and rats, they can't come up here,

so it's actually a good relief for us.

It makes our job way, way easier.

With time ticking, Andrea gets on with the final planting.

-There's quite a few gaps in these ones here.

-Yeah.

We just want to make it look as tropical as possible.

OK, guys, we've got five minutes.

They're on their way up now for sign-off. Everything OK?

Then it's time for the all-important sign-off.

Domenico from John Lewis is here to take a look.

So this is nearly finished now. What do you think?

This looks brilliant. The ones that you mentioned that open in the sun?

-Yep.

-Are they in this area?

They're here. You can see they're closed off at the moment.

They'll come out when the sun shines.

-They just do that repeatedly?

-Yeah.

John Lewis is happy and with that, it's done.

It's been a hell of a challenge,

taken six months, used over 1,000 plants

and weeks of hauling gardening equipment up to the top floor,

but it appears it's all been worth it.

We have finally got sign-off, which is fantastic.

It's incredible to think how far this space has come

from being a big rectangle of concrete to what it is now.

We're really pleased, I'm really pleased,

the client is delighted,

touch wood, so far,

so yeah, hopefully it'll be a good summer on the roof.

For John Lewis's Steve Mann,

the garden's all about what Oxford Street can offer shoppers.

What you can't get online is the atmosphere

and things like this, so for it to be a shopping experience

where you can buy your goods, then come up, chill out on the roof,

have a drink, enjoy the spectacular views across London,

that is somewhere that you can't do anywhere else.

Anything and everything can happen on Oxford Street

and nearing the end of his shift,

PC Barry Nicholls is responding to an emergency.

Let's go, mate.

Just off the street, a pregnant lady has called to say

there are men on the roof of her flat.

Barry is burning shoe rubber to get there.

Barry arrives and with other officers,

goes up to the woman's flat.

She doesn't want to be filmed...

..but lets the officers out onto her balcony.

Where are they?

Yeah, I can hear someone.

They see several men on the roof.

-It's the police.

-Guys, just come down here for a second, yeah?

-MAN ON ROOF:

-What is it?

-It's the police.

Nutcases.

-Yeah, we live here.

-You live there?

-Yeah.

It's not a break-in. The men are squatters in the building next door.

The problem is there's a lady here, she's heavily pregnant

and she's very upset by what you've done.

-You've scared her a little bit.

-Oh, sorry, but...

It's no good saying sorry now. Just don't come back this way.

Firstly, you could fall off and break your neck and secondly,

there's a woman crying in here.

Anyone else up there?

-Yeah, there are people...

-Can you get them down as well, please?

Since squatting in residential properties was banned in 2012,

squatters have been concentrating on empty commercial properties

and in an area like this, anything vacant is tasty pickings for them.

The men ran across the woman's roof

to access the property they're squatting in.

Barry's not impressed.

The occupants of this address here are coming out of what they claim

to be their accommodation and climbing up onto the roof.

It's blatant to see they've been shimmying along here as well

and for their own safety,

it's really incredibly dangerous, a long drop.

If he was to fall off there, I doubt he'd survive, really.

But Barry's main concern is with the woman inside the flat.

Very distressing, she's got strangers outside her window.

She doesn't expect that, she's pregnant.

No-one wants that

and yeah, I for one can fully understand

why she'd be distressed about it.

-The main thing is you.

-Yeah.

Don't worry about them. As you can see,

-all of us are here for you.

-Yeah!

So hopefully that'll be the end of them hopping onto your balcony.

My colleague here has spoken to them,

he's given them some words of advice.

If it happens again, call us again, we'll come out again

and we'll deal with it as we see fit.

Thankfully, it's not an attempted break-in,

so Barry is happy that he's done all he can.

And with the nightlife in full swing,

he thinks he's needed back on Oxford Street.

We've let them know the effects

their behaviour is having on the lady.

Hopefully, that should be the end of it and if they come back across,

then we'll come back out and we'll take firmer action.

It's been an interesting day for Barry -

everything from drunks to death traps.

Now he can head off duty,

but tomorrow could bring even stranger fare.

Oxford Street is currently undergoing its biggest upheaval in 100 years.

And this is why -

Crossrail is a brand-new underground railway

which will run right through the centre of London in tunnels.

It's a mammoth project, costing £15 billion,

taking nine years to build

and leaving two giant new stations under Oxford Street.

The build is entering a crucial phase.

The east and west tunnels have been broken through, connected up

and all the boring is now complete.

Today, another small but crucial part is taking place.

The team are building the platforms

that passengers will eventually use to get on and off the trains.

Today, they're planning on laying the pre-cast concrete slabs,

or planks, as they call them, that will form these platforms.

And on the hottest day of the year, this promises to be hard work.

34 degrees up here.

This pumps out ventilation down into the tunnels.

Imperative that we've got this today,

otherwise it'll be an absolute sweatbox down there.

Grant Cowley is the construction manager for Crossrail

at the Bond Street site.

He's responsible for making sure the platforms are completed to standard

and on time.

We need to run this like a military operation.

These are the planks here that we need to get down.

We're going to get the slingers to come down and sling up these planks

so they're nice and secure for the crane to lift up,

drop it down the master ground shaft to level minus five.

First up, the team concentrate on getting the concrete planks

down the master shaft.

There is a bit of pressure on the team.

Pressure's good, it motivates people.

We hit targets here, we hit deadlines at Bond Street.

But getting the planks down to platform level is no mean feat.

A slinger attaches them to the crane

and then he and another team member guides the crane operator

to winch them down safely.

With several tonnes of concrete on the pallet,

they have to take their time.

Nice and steady, nice and slowly.

With the planks down,

the next step will be to take them to the platform tunnels.

The forklift's now going to take the planks

down into the eastbound platform.

The planks are to be laid on supporting walls,

like these in the already built westbound tunnels,

where work is a little further ahead

and the new station is starting to take shape.

This here is where the trains are going to be pulling in.

Over here is the section of platform.

These are the planks. This is a continuous run.

You can actually see from this angle the substantial size

of this new Crossrail platform.

It is an awfully lot bigger than existing Underground stations.

Back in the eastbound tunnels

and it's time for the first plank to go on.

How long's it going to take to do that?

Ten minutes each plank, all right.

OK, let's get the top one off,

lay it,

and then we'll reassess how much time we've got.

They get to work laying the plank.

Once constructed, the walls

and planks will leave a cavity underneath,

which will be used as a maintenance tunnel.

This type of construction is a first for London

and the Crossrail team hope will future-proof the system

for decades to come.

Lewis Turnbull is the project manager for the contractors.

It's his team laying the planks.

It's a nice, tight operation. The plank's in the air.

We haven't got much room in here, so it's nice and slowly,

nice and steady, take it down. There's a few obstacles in the way,

there's a mesh sticking out of the top of the wall.

With a tolerance of only 10mm,

the plank needs to go into exactly the right place.

The team lower it down for a test fitting.

Yeah.

At the minute, we're putting a mortar bed down

for the plank to sit on.

With the mortar laid, the plank is lowered back on top.

It won't move again for at least 100 years.

It's a critical operation, it's nice and slow.

It's a steady job, but once we're on the run,

you can get a nice good go at it.

The team get on with laying the remaining planks.

They'll work through the night for the foreseeable future

to make sure the project's ready for 2018.

We're 65% of the way through completion and us at Bond Street,

what I can guarantee is on the 9th December 2018,

you'll be able to get on a Crossrail train at Bond Street

and travel under central London.

It's another small step complete

for the biggest engineering project in Europe.

One day soon, Oxford Street visitors will step onto these platforms

in their tens of thousands, heading to the shops.

But for now, the only people that will see them

are the men and women building them.

To stay on top when it comes to tourists,

Oxford Street spares no expense.

Which is why it's invested in a team of these.

They're welcome ambassadors,

whose job it is to help visitors get where they want to go.

We need to know actually everything people ask you.

These stylish street assistants are out and about every day,

giving information on everything and anything...

-Hello, how can I help?

-Hi! What exactly do you do?

..in dozens of languages.

HE SPEAKS PORTUGUESE

HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

Hello!

Being a good ambassador is about embracing the theatre of the job

and that means getting into character.

HE CHORTLES

And a big part of that is the uniform,

the epitome of a city gent.

As a welcome ambassador, appearance is everything.

We wear a three-piece suit and a bowler hat.

It's one of those traditionally English articles of clothing.

It just helps to put that little bit of a sheen on the whole operation.

And if he's to play the part successfully,

Ambassador Tony's uniform needs to look its best.

After all, he's going to be the image of the street

for hundreds of thousands of visitors to take home.

But if truth be told, Tony's bowler's in a bad way.

My hat's looking a little bit worn at the moment.

They start off quite rigid, the felt is quite hard,

but after a while,

they tend to soften

and they need to be replaced.

The bowler hat was designed by London hat makers

Thomas and William Bowler in 1849.

It's believed it was commissioned by Edward Coke,

the younger brother of the 2nd Earl of Leicester.

He wanted a close-fitting, low-crowned hat

his gamekeepers could wear that wouldn't be knocked off

by low-hanging branches while on horseback the way the top hats were.

In the present day, Tony's come to a local milliner

to get himself measured up for a new bowler

that will fit on his considerable head.

I've got somewhere between a large and an extra-large,

so I need to get either an extra-large

that needs to be padded out,

or I need to get a large that needs to be slightly stretched.

Milliner Georgina has been making hats for over a decade.

Let's just check your head size.

Yeah, it's definitely an extra-large.

It's full of brains, that's why.

Yeah, that's what I constantly say, all the time.

Georgina tests it out with a display model from the shop.

So how does that feel?

-I think it's good.

-Yeah?

-I think it might have a little bit of room.

-A bit a wobble sideways.

OK, well, I'll do an order for that

-and I'll send an e-mail over to the office for you.

-Thank you!

Although she'll adjust Tony's new hat for him,

Georgina won't be making it.

For that, she'll have to go from Oxford Street to Oxfordshire,

where Christys' Hats is based.

It's over 200 years old

and along with keeping the Metropolitan Police in helmets,

they're the only company making bowlers in the traditional way,

Steve Clarke is the boss.

What we have here are some of the wonderful old machines.

These machines are 50, 80, 100 years old.

Did the job beautifully then and realistically,

there are no better machines for making hats like this even now.

Now you have the basic shape of the crown,

so that shape will be remembered, if you like, by the hood.

Today, the factory's concentrating on making other styles of hats

and putting the finishing touches to Tony's bowler.

It will have been made with the traditional methods,

but with one key difference.

What happens to it is it gets soaked in a mixture of shellac

and denatured alcohol

and that then gets drawn over a block,

so the hood is drawn over a block in order to give it its shape,

then it's baked so that it stiffens beautifully in an oven,

nice and gently and what you end up with

is that wonderful stiff finish that everybody recognises in a bowler.

The team select a bowler in Tony's size.

Currently, we're just finishing off the bowler, putting a lining in.

The sweatband's already in.

And there you go.

What you have here is a finished bowler hat,

so it's beautifully trimmed, it's bound, leather sweat band,

it's got the lining in, a little bow at the back.

And here you go.

A week later, Tony's back with Georgina to try on his new hat.

He'll be wearing it every day from now on,

so making sure it fits comfortably is important.

First of all, Georgina makes a key adjustment.

So what we do is we just take off the standard black band

and we replace it with the band in the colour

that matches the Oxford Street branding,

so that the welcome people are instantly visible.

Tony takes advantage of the wait to work on a new look.

Yeah, that's more like it.

Then the moment of truth.

Want to just pop that on?

Do you think maybe you need a little bit under there?

Maybe a little bit under the sides,

but it sits quite nicely at the front and back.

-It's nice and straight, isn't it?

-Yeah.

Georgina adds some padding under the leather sweatband.

-How does that feel now? Is that OK?

-Yeah, it feels good.

-Looking good, Tony.

-Yeah.

I feel more aerodynamic.

Yeah, it's great. You get a new hat and you feel reinvigorated.

It feels good, it's nice and tight. Not too tight,

just nice and comfortable. You know it's not going to get blown off.

It feels good, I feel good,

it gives you a new lease of life.

Now all he's got to do is see how it fares

on Europe's busiest shopping street.

-This way?

-That turning there, that's Argyle Street.

-I love your hat.

Down there, second turning on the left, second turning on the right.

-Do you like my hat?

-Very attractive.

-It's pretty cool.

-I think they look like they belong here -

brings a bit of the olden days back to London. It looks nice.

New hats are a bit like new shoes.

For the first couple of weeks,

they're usually a bit uncomfortable, but this one is quite nice.

It fits really well and it's not at all uncomfortable.