Voyeurism arrives on the high street

A 24-year-old bank clerk has begun a week-long stay in a purpose-built, three-roomed "microflat" -- constructed in a shop window on London's busy Oxford Street.

Shoppers whooped and cheered as Warren Bevis arrived, suitcase in hand, for his experiment in cheap inner-city living.

The event is aimed at promoting a possible way of allowing young people to beat spiralling real estate prices in London and gain a foothold on the property ladder -- a key aim for London Mayor Ken Livingstone.

"This is to help young professionals get a first foot on the property ladder," Conner told Reuters on Monday.

"The microflat is about two-thirds of the size of the average London flat. But everything's been resized so it doesn't feel very small," he said of the 32 square metre (105 square feet) flat.

The project will run for a fortnight and Bevis will be replaced after a week by a young woman who also wants to move to London but cannot afford the high house prices.

Piercy Conner are at work on a microflat development in West London and said a flat will cost between 70,000 pounds and 100,000 pounds. London estate agents Foxtons said one-bed flats in that area cost on average 265,000 pounds.

Onlookers were divided on the attractions of living in a shop window.

Marka Peake, 14, waited two hours to see the vinyl -- which hid the flat from eager onlookers -- ripped away to reveal the glistening stainless steel kitchen and polished wood floors.

"It's cool...I'd love to do it if I was sure you couldn't be seen in the bathroom," he said.

Student Corine Smith wasn't so convinced.

"Do I want to live in a glass box? 24 hours a day, eating, sleeping and washing in front of the whole of Oxford Street? No way," she said.