Oxford Street is frequently featured throughout the Strike series, being just a few minutes walk from Denmark Street.
Famous for its shops, the street features specific locations from the books such as The Flying Horse/The Tottenham, Selfridges and Debenhams (now closed).
One of the entrances to Tottenham Court Road Underground station is also on the corner of Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road, directly opposite The Flying Horse.
The street meets at a junction where it joins Tottenham Court Road, Charing Cross Road and New Oxford Street.
In The Cuckoo’s Calling
At the beginning of the book, Robin emerges onto Oxford Street and has to navigate the construction works on her way to Denmark Street for the very first time.
Oxford Street is mentioned by John Bristow as being where Lula Landry was first “discovered” and where her modelling career started, whilst out shopping with her mother, Yvette Bristow. She was taken on by Athena, “one of the most prestigious agencies.”
After his few pints of Doom Bar in The Tottenham, Strike “ambles off” down Oxford Street to kill time until the Temporary Solution (Robin Ellacott) had left the office.
Later, in Part 1, Chapter 7, Strike walks down Oxford Street carrying a camp-bed: “This was the hour when he found London most lovable; the working day over, her pub windows were warm and jewel-like, her streets thrummed with life, and the indefatigable permanence of her aged buildings, softened by the street lights, became strangely reassuring. We have seen plenty like you, they seemed to murmur soothingly, as he limped along Oxford Street carrying a boxed-up camp bed. Seven and a half million hearts were beating in close proximity in this heaving old city, and many, after all, would be aching far worse than his. Walking wearily past closing shops, while the heavens turned indigo above him, Strike found solace in vastness and anonymity.”
When Strike and Ciara Porter are on their way to the Uzi nightclub to meet Evan Duffield, the Mercedes, driven by Kieran Kolovas-Jones, purrs along Oxford Street.
The street is also featured briefly in the TV adaptation of The Cuckoo’s Calling.
