By Style5 windows
Toned and athletic: five companions, one for every stretch of the street
Oxford Street runs a little over a mile, from the arch at its western end to Tottenham Court Road at the other, and on a Saturday afternoon it can feel twice that. The five companions whose profiles record an athletic build are the ones who will cheerfully walk every yard of it, and each has one stretch she treats as her own. Here they are in order, west to east.
Their stamina comes from different places: a tennis court, a saddle, a dancer's poise and long days standing at a cutting table. None of it shows up as rushing. It shows up as a companion who is still excellent company at the end of the fourth hour.
Toned and athletic, lit
5 women in the windows fit this description, going by the facts on their profiles. Each pane leads to the full picture.
Marble Arch to Orchard Street: Laura
Laura lives ten minutes away in Paddington and starts where the shops give way to Hyde Park. She walks you south to Rotten Row, where riders from the Bathurst Mews stables take their horses along the sand, then comes back up to Marble Arch for an aperitivo as the Park Lane lamps come on. She rides, skis and orders in café Italian, and same day requests suit her once it is past noon.
Selfridges: Sonya
Sonya owns the block around Selfridges. The fragrance hall on the ground floor is her opening move, three scents and a verdict from you, and a quiet early dinner nearby follows before the evening crowd arrives. A dancer's posture, a meditation habit and the most precise hours in The Selection: five until ten.
Bond Street and the turn south: Angelika
At Bond Street, Angelika turns off the main road and down towards the auction viewing rooms on New Bond Street, where she walks fast and stops dead in front of one picture. Tennis most mornings, contemporary art most afternoons, live music most nights, and evenings open from seven.
Oxford Circus and Liberty: Nora
Nora takes the stretch around Oxford Circus and ducks just off Regent Street into Liberty, where the floorboards creak and every print has a story she can tell. Carnaby Street next, a glass of champagne, then dinner if the afternoon deserves it. She designs dresses of her own and prefers a day's notice.
Berners Street to the crossroads: Tina
Tina finishes the walk at the eastern end, turning up Berners Street to the Punch Room at The London EDITION, a panelled bar where drinks arrive in a bowl for the table. Afterwards she knows a record bar close by. Fashion design, vinyl and a tailor's eye for every jacket she passes.
Two stretches in one booking
Nothing stops a plan from covering more than one stretch. Laura and Nora already know each other from Paddington, so the park end and the Liberty end can be walked together as a duo, each on her own fee from the same ladder. Thursday is a good day for it: the shops stay open late, and the windows are still lit when you reach the crossroads at eight. A weekday afternoon in early autumn is the calmest the pavement ever gets.
Walking the whole mile
A whole afternoon on the street with any of the five is priced like any other booking, £700 for three hours and £900 for four, and shopping days and weekends shows how a long day is planned, from the first shop to the last glass. Bring comfortable shoes; she will. Sonya and Tina are also in petite, Nora is one of the four blondes, and Angelika stands among the raven haired.
Light a window
Point to a pane on this page, or describe the look and let the desk suggest a name.