Episode 5 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,

-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...

It's the busiest street in the world, so 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, rip-off gaming scams.

It's not illegal gambling, they're actually fraud

-because it's a game you cannot win.

-Police take on the scammers.

-This boy wants the most expensive shoes in the shop.

-They're £250.

Will his dad foot the bill?

Tube staff deal with unhappy passengers.

I can't be late. That's something I can't do.

There's a bike race with an Olympic champion.

-Victoria Pendleton.

-SHE HONKS HORN

And can the smallest retailers on the street make big money?

Tours of London.

Is there anyone who actually wants to buy anything today?

Oxford Street draws millions of visitors

from the UK and across the world and to keep them coming back,

the street is kept as clean, inviting and friendly as possible.

Part of this responsibility falls to the undercover police officers

from West End Central Station.

As well as chasing shoplifters and pickpockets,

PC Paul Penrose and his team battle

the street's other antisocial elements.

People are busy shopping, they're bumping into each other.

It's very chaotic, it's very easy pickings for criminal gangs.

We've got street hawkers, people who are begging,

pedicabbers who are ripping off tourists.

They're all there to take advantage of people's good nature

and the amount of money that's being spent on Oxford Street.

Today, he and colleague Hatice Iper are patrolling the street,

keeping watch for the signs of criminal behaviour.

Saturday afternoon. Very, very busy on Oxford Street.

London's a bit of a jungle

and on a Saturday, Oxford Street is definitely the watering hole.

Before long, Hatice spots two men looking suspicious,

lurking outside a shop without ever going inside.

On our side? Yeah, I've got him, yeah.

The pair decide to follow them.

The men come to a halt outside a Tube station

and Paul and Hatice watch from the other side of the road.

Paul's experience tells him these guys are up to something.

They just don't feel right.

Whether they're actually up to something, I don't know.

Paul's not sure what the men are up to,

but he's got an idea it might be serious.

Then the men head off.

The lads we were looking at are on the move,

making a slow walk down, so we're going to follow them.

Having spent so long watching the men,

Paul doesn't want to get too close now and get spotted.

We've been quite exposed with these two

because we've been on the opposite side of the road,

so while they'll have seen us,

they probably haven't physically noticed us,

but just stay a little a bit concealed.

I think this is drugs.

They're coming over here. Stay still.

OK, he's met up with him.

Right, there's something going on.

The men have met two others and swapped a bag.

Paul's seen thieves do this before, when they exchange stolen goods.

If they separate again, he won't be able to stop all of them,

so he decides to make his move now.

Guys, police. Can you come here, please? Come here. And you.

Police. Can you all come and stand here for me?

Stay calm or you're going to get handcuffed up.

I need you to stay there for me, please.

Keep your hands out your pockets.

If you put your hands in your pockets, I'll put you in handcuffs.

I've seen them start to exchange things between each other.

One's then taken a bag off this gentleman on the right.

I'm just keeping it nice and calm before I start a search.

Later, when Paul and Hatice search the men,

they uncover something they didn't expect.

OK, do you want to tell me what this is? Cos I know what this is.

-It's not mine.

-Whoa, you stay there. Who's going to tell on their mate?

A big growth area for retail sales at the moment is trainers.

These humble sports shoes have never been more popular,

with demand for fashionable brands driving sales.

And making the most of this booming trade is JD.

Sales at its sports fashion shops rose 13% last year,

with its 350 branches across the UK

selling a whopping 10 million pairs of trainers.

And at their Oxford Street store this morning,

branch manager Donna is preparing her staff,

at the start of their eight-hour shift, to sell even more.

People are on Oxford Street, they're looking for bargains,

they want the cheap sale items, so it's up to us to sell them.

They're starting their seasonal sale

and Donna's hoping to see the trainers fly off the shelves.

Stuart, you're going to be working in the stockroom today,

so you're going to be running orders, so RUN orders, please.

Not walking - that would be great.

Anthony, you're going to be on the floor.

Cain, Jenaya, you're also going to be on the floor, serving,

so keep your customers up-to-date with where their order's at.

In fact, trainer sales are so buoyant,

JD is opening a brand-new flagship store on Oxford Street.

But until it opens, this branch will have to cope with demand.

Our footfall for today could be

anywhere between 4,000 to 6,000 customers, coming into our store.

This area takes the most money on our footwear department for us.

We always have a member of staff in this area.

This is one of our bestselling trainers at the moment,

but we also have our Huaraches.

This is a new Huarache that, this week, came out for us.

One of the biggest challenges in a store as busy as this one

is making sure the shelves stay stacked.

Andre, can we get on top of these gaps, please?

Having a gap on the shop floor does create a problem for us.

So, if we were to sell this trainer right now,

that means that we're not displaying this model

anywhere on the shop floor,

so customers will miss the option to actually buy this trainer.

So, it's very important that we react very quickly

to any gaps on the shop floor.

With the store starting to get busy, Donna is pushing her team hard.

Can you order that in that size for a customer?

Get rubbish off the floor as well, yeah?

Keep the shoes back on the wall for me, yeah?

My manager, Donna, is very OCD.

She's always out saying, "Do that, do that.

"Make sure everything is tidy."

Some people might say that I have OCD with my store.

Realistically, I just want everything to be

as best as it possibly can be.

Can you just put that on there for me? Thanks.

So, I do go round, give the guys a bit of a hard time,

but it's only because I'm passionate about the business and the store.

With so much demand to try on trainers,

the store's installed a cutting-edge system

to get shoes out to the shop floor as fast as possible.

What we have here is our footwear ordering system.

Size 10 in this pair. Give me just one second,

I'll check for you. Take a seat.

I'm just scanning the shoe to see

if we have the size that she needs in stock.

I scan it, it goes through on the display to the stockroom

and then they'll grab the shoes, bring it out.

That will be just a few minutes, we'll get it out to you.

This is the side of JD few ever see.

A Max 90 400 in a 10.

Stuart's running the storeroom today - literally.

The screen tells him the make, model and size

and he uses a coding system to find it

and get it to the shop floor as fast as he can.

They want it out from here,

from when they've ordered to here in about two to three minutes.

This is the one downside,

is trying to figure where everything is exactly.

Thanks very much, bud. 401.

Running the storeroom is trainer fanatic Stuart's dream job.

Shoes is literally everything. It's every second thought for me.

I collect shoes. I'm on 132 at the minute.

My most expensive, I've actually just sold,

was an original Jordan from 1984.

Never been worn, never come out the box.

I paid 1,700, so it's about £1,300.

I sold them for just under 3,000, so about £2,400.

Not a bad profit, but part of me still wants the shoes.

And with the sale in full swing,

Stuart has a lot more orders to pull out.

-HE PANTS

-I just need a minute's breath,

Busy times, but keeps you fit, so it's a good part of the job.

Later, the sale continues and one shoe, in particular, causes a stir.

Very comfy. I'm so hoping I can get them.

When it comes to shopping,

Oxford Street is the home of flagship branches

and gigantic department stores that are known across the world.

Selfridges, Debenhams and John Lewis are just some of the titans

that do major business here.

But just a few yards away, a relative minnow of the retail world

is just getting ready for another day's trading at Oxford Circus.

Another day in paradise in London, the West End, Oxford Circus.

All ready to open the shop and 18 years of hell.

No, it's not all been hell. Some of it's good.

Peter Rowlands' stall is one of the smallest retail spaces on the street.

Originally, this was a Portakabin with a flat roof

and it needed upgrading, obviously, so I invested 25 grand plus,

to get this one built. It's a bit more state of the art.

Peter also has to pay rent to the council to trade from the stall.

His main sellers vary throughout the day.

Regular customers or, basically, passers-by,

they'll just want mainly drinks, sweets, crisps,

that sort of thing, chocolate.

After about 10 or 11 o'clock in the morning,

any tourists that are here have had their breakfast

and they've started wondering out, so then it becomes,

hopefully, sightseeing tickets, which is the main thing now, really.

Tour bus tickets are good business, selling for up to £32 apiece.

Oh, the next bus? It's going to be Wednesday.

Only joking.

As with any shop, success or failure relies on visitor footfall

and while big stores aim at netting thousands of sales a day,

today, Peter's aiming a little lower.

I'd want to sell, minimum, 33 a day.

Once that's covered, the 33, then I'm earning money.

And Peter's not the only one on Oxford Street

trying to make a living working out of a kiosk.

Further down the street, Brazilian Renato Damiano

is trying to make his living selling bubble tea,

a Taiwanese drink that has proved popular

with young people across the UK.

The most popular things we sell here is the bubble teas,

but the fruit teas.

The bestseller is mango and passion fruit.

He works on the bubble tea stall with his colleague Felipe.

It's called bubble tea because of this special ingredient.

They are made of tapioca flour and when we put the flour,

it becomes very chewy and gummy, a bit like jelly.

OK, and we also have the flavoured bubbles.

They have juice inside, so they pop in your mouth.

And that's the twist of the bubble tea.

Bubble tea has become a phenomenon across the country

and these two hope to expand from their single stall in the future.

Have you tried our bubble tea before?

It's not bad. Pretty good.

Mmm, it's really nice. Well done.

Lovely.

But Renato and Felipe need to sell 100 drinks a day

to make a profit and it's starting to rain.

We are here for two hours and...

..up to now, we sold only 14 drinks.

The stall's licence only allows it to sell cold drinks

which, on a cold, wet day, is a problem.

But Renato has a trick up his sleeve.

We need to be ready to sell umbrellas now

because we are not going to sell cold drinks in this weather.

Umbrellas, only £4. Stay dry. Don't catch a cold.

A top-of-the-range brolly at nearby Selfridges

would come in at over £300,

but even at £4, the stall's not exactly selling many.

Peter's also struggling with the bad weather. He's yet to sell a ticket.

He decides to go on the offensive.

Anyone need a ticket for the tour bus now? Bus tours of London.

See the sights of London while they're still there.

Later, will business boom for the little guys on the big street?

Anyone need a ticket for the tour? Big Bus or Original tour.

Anything else?

Oxford Street is undergoing its most radical change in over 100 years.

Vast swathes at the east end of the street are now a building site,

as developers plunge billions into a new plaza

that will dominate the area.

And no-one is living with this more than the staff

at Tottenham Court Road underground station.

The station is decrepit and is long past its sell-by date,

so London Underground are spending hundreds of millions updating it.

Stage one of the works starts this morning,

when one of the two Tube lines that uses the station,

the Central line, closes.

For stage two, tomorrow, they open a brand-new ticket hall next door.

This morning is Bob Lawrence's final shift at the old ticket hall.

I've been on the underground now since 2006.

I've been here at the station for just over two years.

It's Bob's job, this morning, to deal with the fallout from passengers

when they realise that Central line trains are no longer stopping here.

And no sooner has the station opened for business,

than confused commuters begin arriving.

Go down one stop to Leicester Square.

But while the closure is news to a number of passengers,

one man is more upset than most.

He's travelled eight and a half miles from his north London home,

on his way to work, to change trains here and has now found out he can't.

Your only way then is to Embankment

and then get the Circle line round to Notting Hill Gate.

That's the only way round, I'm afraid.

Oh... And how long is that going to take me?

-Er...

-I'm really going to be late.

It's going to take you about half an hour to get there,

-including the interchange.

-I work security as well. I can't be late.

-That's something I can't do.

-What time you got to be there by?

-Nine!

-I'm meant to be there at nine!

-It's nine o'clock now, yeah. Um...

At Colindale station, I asked the guy,

"Is it open for me to come through the Central line to get to work?"

And he says, "Yeah, get on the train. Go." I'm here and I'm stuck.

He was told that the Central line is open,

but what he wasn't told is it's actually closed here,

at Tottenham Court Road, and not stopping,

so I've suggested he exit here at number one,

catches any number of five buses to go from here to Marble Arch,

to continue his journey on the Central line to Shepherd's Bush.

That's the way it's been. It's been advertised for a month now.

Why they never told you...

At Colindale station, someone has to be responsible for their actions.

How am I being told something and it's not even true?

There have been notices around for a long, long time, so...

Bob wants to help and is prepared to go the extra mile.

He volunteers to give the man his own mobile number

so that if his bosses want to confirm why he's late for work, they can.

-If they want to call here, give him that.

-OK, no problem.

So, you've got the 7, 10, 73...

Bus, and get to wherever he's telling me to go to - Marble Arch.

I've given him a customer service card,

I put my own number on there, my details of the station here,

so that if his bosses do want to ring up to check

the validation of the story, they've got it, which is not a problem.

So, if he is late for work, he's covered, hopefully.

For Bob, it's not been an uneventful final shift at the old ticket hall.

But tomorrow, he'll be doing it all again in the brand spanking new one.

As one customer put it, like something out of the space age.

We'll have to wait and see what happens when it finally does open.

Later, the new ticket hall's open

and the teething problems are just beginning.

At quarter past eight in the morning,

it's one thing we don't really need.

PC Paul Penrose and PC Hatice Iper are undercover on Oxford Street.

They've stopped four men who are acting suspiciously.

I've been watching you two, stood over there for a long time.

Then I've seen you two come over, shake hands with this gentleman

and you've swapped something between yourselves.

You have then taken this rucksack off him.

Guys, you're going to be searched, OK, under Section 1 of PACE.

I'm looking for stolen articles.

I believe you guys have been passing items between you.

Your behaviour over there, you've been on the phone,

looking for someone. As soon as you've met,

you've exchanged items between yourselves.

The backpack that drew Paul's suspicion

has quite a surprise inside it.

OK, do you want to tell me what this is? Cos I know what this is.

-It's not your bag?

-Paul's found a foam ball and three cups.

It might not look like much, but Paul knows this is the equipment

for a fraudulent game played only to rip off the public.

Welcome to the world of gaming.

This is the game being played.

It was filmed recently by a passer-by and posted online as a warning.

So, this is how it works. They'll have a mat, three cups.

The object of the game is to guess which cup the foam ball is under.

Watch the ball, move the cups round.

But what he's done, he's taken the foam ball out from underneath

and concealed it in his hand.

There is no ball under those cups.

Tourists will guess and go, "It's under that one."

£20 on. He'll go, "No."

He'll say, "All the time, it was under THAT one."

And he will slip it under as he lifts the other cup.

So, you are never going to win this game.

Gamers can get away with the con,

because people don't realise they've been tricked.

These guys are gambling for £20 a throw on this,

so they make £200 in 20 minutes, comfortably.

There's gangs of three, four, five who are involved.

You've got the chap who plays the game,

you've got someone who poses as a player

and will start putting down big money and they'll let him win,

as well as spotters to keep an eye out for the police.

It's not illegal gambling.

They're actually fraud because it's a game you cannot win.

It's your bag. It was on you. So, you're telling me its HIS bag, yeah?

OK, you're going gaming, yeah? Whose is it?

Whoa, you stay there. Who's going to tell on their mate?

No honour amongst thieves, is there?

At the moment, it's yours. It was on your back.

None of the men are in a rush to claim ownership of the bag

and while Paul's determined that visitors to Oxford Street

won't lose their money to these fraudsters,

without seeing the men actually playing,

-no offence has been committed.

-You're free to go.

-Yes.

-OK? The minute you get that out, you get arrested.

It is when you steal.

If that ball stays in the cup, everyone's got a chance.

The man realises that this line of argument's unlikely to win him

much sympathy with Paul and the men are happy to be on their way.

We got them off the street because, along the line somewhere,

someone will have been taken for £20, £30 a go.

This time, the men are allowed to go, but the police in London

are keeping an eye out for anyone they find

actually playing the scam game.

This type of fraud is a big problem

but one the police are determined to root out.

In the last six months, Westminster Police have made 107 arrests

of people organising the scam game in the West End of London alone.

Of these, 20 were cautioned and 78 were charged with illegal gaming.

It is something we're determined to crack down on

because tourists are losing a terrific amount of money

to these guys. We close them down, they move somewhere else.

We close them down, they move somewhere else.

We just hound the life out of them, really, just keep them on the move.

It's sale day at JD, Oxford Street, and with prices reduced,

-business is booming.

-Size 6 or 7, yeah?

Staff member Anthony is one of the store's top salesmen,

but even he is feeling the pressure.

It won't be long at all, all right? Cheers.

It is actually quite busy today.

Trainers are, like, off the shelf, they're everywhere,

people are getting impatient,

we're trying our best as possible to get trainers out on time for them.

If you need anything, just give us a shout, OK? All right?

But one pair they don't sell a lot of are these -

the Nike Mercurial Cristiano Ronaldo football boots,

named after the Real Madrid star, and they're not in the sale.

They're £250. Very expensive.

One person who's taken a shine to the store's most expensive boots

-is Quinn.

-Ah, you want them. Right.

He's visiting from America with his cousins

and has set his heart on getting himself a pair.

They feel really comfy,

a nice texture in them inside.

Also they're soft, the soft bit of it.

At the moment, the kids are on their own in the store,

but Quinn's dad is currently on the way to pick the boys up.

Very comfy.

I'm so hoping I can get them.

Quinn's hoping his dad will stretch to the £250 price tag.

So, did you want me to leave them at the till or take them back?

-Um, leave them at the till.

-All right.

-That's if your dad buys them.

-Hopefully he will.

And, just on cue, Quinn's dad, Daryl, arrives.

He's had a text message about the boots.

Will he stump up and make Quinn's dream come true?

You're not having them from here.

You're not having the boots from here.

You didn't want the Ronaldo boots anyway,

you wanted the Messi ones, so you're not having them from here.

He wants the most expensive boots in the store.

Unfortunately, that's not going to happen.

So, Quinn is forced to leave without £250 of football boots.

But while this sale might have fallen through,

the discounts are keeping the rest of the business brisk.

The store will still be open

for another three to four hours this evening,

so the guys have got a lot of work to do and a lot of time

to still make as many more sales as they possibly can.

And keeping the shop floor fed with footwear,

Stuart's still busy backstage.

109 in a 9.

Can I leave this with you? That all right? Thank you.

But, as soon as one's delivered,

-there's half a dozen others on the screen.

-1092 in a 10.

And don't seem... Can I pass this over to you?

With this, the Max 95, we didn't have the 10. It's a 10.5.

Have we got anything going out? We're done! Clear screen.

By the end of his eight-hour shift, it looks like job done.

When you clear the screen, it's a nice relief, really, for everything.

They expected over 4,000 customers would enter the shop

and they were right.

The team have hit their targets

and can congratulate themselves on a good day's work.

Long day, really busy, a lot of customers in,

done a lot of sales, been quite productive.

-It's been good, it's been fun.

-While they head off,

the Nike Mercurials get ready for another lonely night in the store.

Earlier, we saw how two of the street's smallest businesses

were getting on, alongside some of the country's biggest retailers.

Bad weather was proving to be a problem for sales of cold drinks

and sightseeing tours.

Bus tours of London!

Ticket seller Peter has a target

of 33 tickets to sell in a day to move into profit.

So far, he's not sold one.

It's breaking the deadlock first of all, that's the thing.

You've got to be patient, you know? You think you're having a bad day

and all of a sudden, you can get lucky, out of the blue.

You might have sold three all day

and then you get a party of 18 tourists - boom in one go -

and that's made your day, really.

Seconds later, Peter has one of those moments.

One, two, three.

Three adults will be £90, OK? Thank you.

At last, we've broken the ice! We're on the way to many, hopefully.

It's taken two hours to get three.

Over the road, things are still proving tough

for Renato and Felipe.

Fewer than 20 of their 100 drinks target sold so far.

We are behind the sale target now, after three hours.

But, as you can see, the weather's really bad.

A day like this makes me sad and stressful

because I like to have customers here every minute.

-Thank you very much. Cheers.

-But Peter's just sold two more.

Well, I'm not getting excited yet. I'm on five tickets.

Merci beaucoup. Merci. Thank you.

A bit more trade and Peter's sales tally's up to ten.

Still 23 to go for a profit.

Anyone need a ticket for the tour? Big Bus or Original tour.

Madame Tussaud's, London Eye. Anything else?

But after this brief flurry, sales drop off again.

Is there anyone who actually wants to buy anything today?

For stallholders like Peter,

so dependent on good weather and tourists, business can be harsh.

To be perfectly honest, I hate it.

I can't wait to get out of here and put the key in the door at night.

That's it. He'll look after the place.

I can trust him. Good as gold.

But even if visitors aren't buying bus tickets,

they are buying bubble tea.

I love Oxford Street.

I live in north Wales, so I never get to see anything like this.

Just up the road,

the boys from Brazil are starting to shift their drinks.

Thank you very much, guys.

It's actually not too bad. It's pretty good.

Thank you very much.

But with 100 sales needed to break even, they can't close up just yet.

We've sold around...35 drinks.

We've got another 65 to go.

With the intemperate weather keeping tourists at bay,

they're relying on local office workers to start getting thirsty.

We're still a little bit behind target.

I think we're on about 56 drinks right now.

People will still leave the offices, they'll leave work,

they normally come around here.

For both stalls, the clock's now ticking towards their 5pm closure.

I've got an hour to sell 20.

It's not the end of the world. Tomorrow's another day, you know.

You don't get it one day, you might get it another.

Bit of a tough life, really, here in London all the time.

I would like to retire, to be honest with you.

I would like to retire now,

but it's about getting that nest egg behind you first.

And after another hour without a ticket sale,

Peter decides his future is a Tube ride home.

-He's only sold 10 of his 33 target.

-I'm going to start breaking it down,

go home and have a nice cup of tea with the cat.

As it gets ready to close up,

the bubble tea kiosk has also fallen short of its 100-drink target.

Unfortunately, we've sold about 80% of what we should have done.

It's not panic, it's just that feeling

that you're not doing something right, you know.

But both stalls know running a business like this

is about taking the rough with the smooth.

But then, I'm sure tomorrow or even Thursday, we'll be back on track.

In the end of the month, we're always reaching the targets,

so that's the main thing.

It won't be venison tonight or filet steak.

It's going to be cheese on toast.

But you know what? Tomorrow is another day.

With the largest parade of potential buyers in Britain

walking past their kiosks every day,

there'll be plenty to open up for the next morning.

At the east end of Oxford Street,

it's all change at one of its key Tube stations - Tottenham Court Road.

As part of a multimillion-pound redevelopment,

the Victorian ticket hall has been closed,

to be replaced by a brand-new one next door.

It's taken two years to build and cost hundred of millions of pounds.

Station veteran Bob is there for the grand opening.

It's been good so far. The reaction's been pretty good.

People have been impressed.

Looking round and seeing smiles on their faces,

they're quite impressed with it so far.

So, just hope it keeps going like this.

The opening's a big deal for London Underground -

the culmination of months of hard work.

There's a briefing with top brass for the media and, for passengers,

they're starting with what they call a soft opening,

on a weekday morning in the holiday period.

They're hoping it will weed out

any teething problems with the new building.

The look on some people's faces

as they come through this morning are just unbelievable.

We had one bloke come up with a look of bewilderment on his face

and his first words were, "Where am I?"

So I said, "Tottenham Court Road."

And he didn't realise he was actually at the new station.

One person who doesn't need a ticket

is Transport for London Managing Director, Mike Brown.

Greeting him is Alexander.

-How are we doing? What do you think?

-Oh, very happy about this.

-Yeah?

Feel like saying, "Ooh, we got everything."

A little bit nervous, you know.

When your chief executive come and see how the station is going,

you're a bit nervous.

I have a little butterfly flying in my tummy now.

I'm very happy. Everything is working fine.

But just then, the first problems begin to emerge.

'Your key is not working?'

The escalator has gone off.

The emergency button was pushed downstairs.

It was reset but it can't reset it.

With the boss briefing the national media,

it's vital the team get it up and running as soon as possible.

Bob calls in the experts.

All right, OK, cheers. Engineer's on site.

It was quite quick, actually.

At a quarter past eight in the morning,

it's one thing we don't need.

The engineers get to work and things are soon ready to move again.

Escalator 8 is running now.

But, no sooner have they fixed it...

One to base. Number 13 escalator is off as well.

..another one's down.

The glitches which you expect... It's like moving into a new house.

This piece is missing, that piece is missing

and we are expecting a little bit of glitches,

but gradually it's going to be fitting in.

UNCLEAR MESSAGE OVER RADIO

Yeah, escalator 13 is running now. Can we put it into service?

New station, everybody wants to get it right.

And, as of now, we're getting it right.

One to base. The escalator stopped again.

Weeding out teething problems like these

are why they have soft openings.

With the engineers on the scene, it's soon solved.

We've had a few whoops with the escalators,

but overall, it's not been too bad for the rush hour.

I was quite impressed with it.

'We have a good service on all lines. A good service on all lines.'

Yeah, nice! Everybody happy.

My customers are happy, I'm also happy.

The old ticket hall welcomed Oxford Street customers for over 100 years.

During its lifetime, hundreds of millions of people used it.

It's hoped the new ticket hall will be just as successful.

With over half a million visitors a week

thronging the pavements of Oxford Street,

it doesn't leave much space for staging events.

But there is a place, down an alley off it, which has got room -

St Christopher's Place.

This ancient courtyard is a haven of restaurants, shops and bars,

away from the hustle and bustle of the main street

and the extra space makes it perfect

for staging the events Oxford Street can't fit.

Which is why, very early this morning,

Matthew Harris is overseeing some construction.

It is...heading up to half six in the morning.

We are currently getting a stage together

for the One Great Day event.

One Great Day is 24 hours of organised charity fundraising

for nearby Great Ormond Street children's hospital.

It involves events all over the UK

and St Christopher's Place is holding the London leg,

which Joanne Wilkes has helped to organise.

We did a similar benefit last year and we raised about £12,000.

This year we're aiming for closer to...

gosh, I don't know, £15,000, £20,000, something like that.

The stage will host the main event today -

a charity bike race.

Teams of three from local shops and businesses

have been sponsored to ride 3km on exercise bikes.

The team with the fastest average will get a prize.

All the money raised will be given to Great Ormond Street.

The team get busy with the preparations.

Out front is Simon, one of the St Christopher's Place bellboys,

and it's his job today to attract spectators into the event.

Good morning. It's One Great Day on St Christopher's Place today.

Come and say hello. We've got lots of things happening all day long.

But at this time in the morning, it's proving a hard sell.

Good morning. One Great Day on St Christopher's Place today.

Drop by on your lunch break. Come and say hello. Come and join us.

-We've got lots of things happening all day long.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

At least we got an interaction. That's the struggle.

In the courtyard, the cycling competition is about to start.

The first team to take to the bikes

are all staff from Oxford Street's retail association,

the New West End Company.

But there's a surprise for them, waiting on stage.

They're about to get their starting orders

from a genuine Olympic champion.

I'm delighted to welcome to the stage Victoria Pendleton,

double gold medal winner and silver medal winner

and she's going to launch our very first race of the day.

-We've got 41 races to run today. Are you ready, cyclists?

-Yes.

-OK, three, two, one...

-SHE HONKS HORN

And they're off.

As their legs get pumping, Victoria has some words of advice.

Before long, the New West End Company are done

and their results are on the scoreboard.

They're in the lead for now.

Good cause. It was worth doing at 8am in the morning.

But soon, other teams are hot on their heels.

Quick, quick, quick, quick!

Done two, 39 to go.

Five, four, three, two, one.

-Not quite there.

-What did you do that for?

-I was getting you going!

-That was mean!

-I know that was mean but, hey.

Exhausted or not, the racers keep trying

and the money keeps rolling in.

-It's much better than last year.

-Yeah, bigger and better.

And we've raised more money.

I think we could still hit our target of £20,000.

The competition is hotting up

but it's not just the riders that are suffering.

We've run into a bit of a problem

because we had three bikes here and one of them's actually broken.

The seat just sheared off, snapped,

so we're trying to sort out a brand-new bike.

Margaret's on the phone, panicking.

How quickly can we get a replacement bike?

Oh, that's fantastic. Thank you so much.

I'm reliably informed by the guys from Fitness First

that we should have a replacement bike here

within the next 10 or 15 minutes

but, in the meantime, the show must go on.

The new bike's half a mile away but with no van to do the swap,

it falls to Federica to fetch it the hard way.

So, we're going to be racing in twos until we get that third bike back.

-Three, two, one...

-HORN BLARES

Meanwhile, the team from Cote brasserie

are hoping to smash their previous record.

Last year, we arrived 31st out of 44, so really, really bad.

I promised a good lunch and a good bottle of wine

if they come within ten places.

You can do it! Come on!

Come on! Go, guys, go, go! Breathe, breathe out, breathe out.

They've got a tough task

with the current top time of four minutes, eight, to beat.

Come on, come on! Keep going, keep going!

But manager Fiorenzo is not afraid to use

all his motivational management skills.

Speed, speed, speed! Vai, vai!

-Even if he's forgotten they're cycling.

-Run, run, run, run!

3km done in a time of 4 minutes, 47 seconds,

isn't going to trouble the leaderboard,

but it leaves them well ahead of last year's 31st place.

Whoo!

Federica's back with the replacement bike,

-just in time for the last teams.

-So, we've got three people racing again.

Two Ks to go.

The day and the competition are almost over

and the fundraisers are optimistic.

The bucket is full, so we're really stoked.

We made out £12,000 target, but that's not enough.

We're carrying on. We're going to try and hit £20,000.

There's loads of people drinking now, so if they can afford £5

for a pint of beer, they can stick a couple of quid in the bucket.

In total, St Christopher's Place has raised £15,000,

25% more than the previous year, smashing their targets.

There was a 5% increase in footfall across the day

and 18,000 social media mentions.

It's good news for the children of Great Ormond Street

and proves that visitors to Oxford Street

can be a generous lot on a good day.

Meanwhile, the organisers can relax and start enjoying one great night.

-He doesn't do hugs.

-No.