London Gets Shibuya Style Crossing

Date: 2009 November 02 05:33

Posted by Joe

BBC News have an interesting article about a new crossing on Oxford Street in London.

The London shopping district now has a crossing inspired by the X style walk way. The most famous of which can be seen at Shibuya in Tokyo and is frequently filmed in documentaries that feature Japan.

The opening ceremony sounds like a lot of fun -
"In homage to its Far Eastern inspiration, the mayor will strike a two-metre high cymbal as Japanese musicians play taiko drums."

They even got cosplayers involved too -

"A giant X, in the form of 60m (196ft) of red ribbon will then be unfurled by devotees of cult Japanese Manga characters dressed in colourful costumes."

The London Mayor said the crossing was "a triumph for British engineering, Japanese innovation and good old fashioned common sense".

Oxford Street is frequently very busy with more than 200 million visitors a year and ideas like this help ease congestion at the bottle neck area of the tube station.

The BBC News Website has photos of the event you can even see a few cosplayers there too. ^_^

Update We've been sent some great photos of the opening ceremony.

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We've discovered that the good folks behind the Grand International Cosplay Ball in London helped organise the cosplayers for the opening.

They've been kind enough to send us photos of the event. The following 5 photos are taken by Pat Lyttle.