Oxford Circus tube station

Route diagram showing the original route between Shepherd's Bush and Cornhill (Bank).

In the 1890s, the Central London Railway (CLR) published a notice of a private bill that would be presented to Parliament for the 1890 parliamentary session.[10] The bill planned an underground route between Shepherd's Bush[11] and Cornhill (now Bank station).[12][13][note 1] These plans were accepted by both Houses of Parliament on 5 August 1891.[16]

The CLR employed the engineers James Henry Greathead, Sir John Fowler, and Sir Benjamin Baker to design the railway.[17] Tunnelling was completed by the end of 1898[18] and the official opening of the CLR (now the Central line) by the Prince of Wales took place on 27 June 1900;[19] it was opened to the public on 30 July.[20][21] Oxford Circus station opened as part of the first section of the line, between Shepherd's Bush and Bank.[20] As part of the 1935—40 New Works Programme, the misaligned tunnels of the central section on the Central line that slowed running speeds were corrected[22][note 2] and the platforms lengthened to accommodate longer trains.[20]

Bakerloo line platform, 1906

In November 1891, notice was given of a private bill that would be presented to Parliament for the construction of the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway (BS&WR, now the Bakerloo line).[24] The railway was planned to run entirely underground from Marylebone[25] to Elephant & Castle[26] via Baker Street and Waterloo.[24] The route was approved in 1900.[27][28] Construction commenced in August 1898[29] under the direction of Sir Benjamin Baker, W.R. Galbraith and R.F. Church.[30] The works were carried out by Perry & Company of Tregedar Works, Bow.[30] Oxford Circus was altered below ground following a Board of Trade inspection; at the end of 1905, the first test trains began running.[31] The official opening of the BS&WR by Sir Edwin Cornwall took place on 10 March 1906.[32] The first section of the BS&WR was between Baker Street and Lambeth North, then known as Kennington Road.[33]

A proposal for a new underground railway running from Victoria to Walthamstow was first proposed by a Working Party set up by the British Transport Commission in 1948,[34] though that largely followed a 1946 plan for an East Croydon to Finsbury Park line.[35][note 3] A route was approved in 1955 with future extensions to be decided later,[38][note 4] though funding for the construction was not approved by the government until 1962.[40] Construction began in 1962 on the initial Walthamstow to Victoria section, where cross-platform interchange were to be provided at Oxford Circus.[41][42] The Victoria line platforms opened on 7 March 1969.[36] The station opened as part of a second extension from Warren Street to Victoria.[36] Cross-platform interchange between the Bakerloo and Victoria lines was provided by constructing the Victoria line platforms parallel to the Bakerloo ones.[33][36]

• On 13 February 1976, a 20–30 lb (9–14 kg) bomb left in a case at the station by the Provisional IRA was discovered and safely defused. The station, at the height of the afternoon rush hour, was evacuated.[43][44]
• On 23 November 1984, during renovation works, the station suffered a severe fire which burned out the northbound Victoria line platform.[39] It is believed that the fire was caused by smoking materials being pushed through a ventilation grille into a storeroom where they set several materials on fire.[39] This caused the Victoria line between Warren Street and Victoria to be suspended until 18 December the same year.[36] This incident also led to a smoking ban being introduced on trains in July 1984.[45]
• On 3 March 1997, a train derailment caused the northbound Bakerloo line service between Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus to be suspended for 12 days.[33]
• On 11 August 2017, a fire occurred on a Bakerloo Line train, which was evacuated at Oxford Circus. Services were suspended between Elephant and Castle and Paddington.[46] A number of people were treated for smoke inhalation after the fire broke out.[47]
• On 24 November 2017, a fight between passengers on the westbound Central line platform caused a mass panic and stampede that led to 16 injuries.[48]

The CLR and BSWR had separate surface buildings and lift shafts.[39] The station buildings, which remain today as exits from the station,[8] were built on very confined plots on either side of Argyll Street on the south side of Oxford Street, just east of the circus itself. The stations as originally built were entirely separate, but connecting passages were soon provided at platform level.[39] The surviving Central London Railway building to the east of Argyll Street is the best surviving example of stations designed by Harry Bell Measures,[8] and the Bakerloo line building to the west is a classic Leslie Green structure.[39] Both are Grade II listed since 20 July 2011.[7][8][9]

The busy Central line platform, as seen in December 2004, showing its narrow width.

Almost from the outset, overcrowding has been a constant problem, and there have been numerous improvements to the facilities and below-ground arrangements to deal with this.[39][49] After much discussion between the then two separate operators, a major reconstruction began in 1912.[39] This entailed a new ticket hall, serving both lines, being built in the basement of the Bakerloo station, with the Bakerloo lifts removed and new deep-level escalators opened down to the Bakerloo line level.[39] Access to the CLR was by way of existing deep-level subways.[39] The new works came into use on 9 May 1914 with the CLR lifts still available for passengers.[39] By 1923 even this rearrangement was unable to cope, so a second rebuilding began.[39] This involved a second set of escalators being built directly down to the Central line[49] and the CLR station building becoming exit-only.[39] On 2 October 1928, a third escalator leading to the Bakerloo platforms was opened.[39][49] Unusually, lifts came back into prominence at an Underground station when, in 1942, a set of high-speed lifts came into use, largely used as an exit route from the Central line platforms directly to the Argyll Street exit building.[39]

The station was closed between 31 August and 20 November 1939 to facilitate flood protection works for the preparation of The Second World War. Although street access was closed, trains still called, and interchange between the Bakerloo and Central lines was still possible within the station.[20][33]

Station reconstruction to accommodate the Victoria line was described as the most time-consuming for the Victoria line project.[39][note 5] To handle the additional Victoria line passenger loads, a new ticket hall was constructed directly under the road junction.[8] Separate banks of escalators to each line were to be built, with the existing structure to be used as exits with the lifts to be removed. A new one-way interchange subways system was to be built between the Bakerloo/Victoria lines and the Central line. To excavate the new ticket hall below the roadway, traffic was diverted for five and a half years (August 1963 to Easter 1968) onto a temporary bridge-like structure known as the "umbrella" covering the Regent Street/Oxford Street intersection.[39] It consisted of 245 pieces of separate prefabricated steel work. The deck plates were placed on top of a system of steel girders which in turn rested on 25 cylindrical 3-foot (0.91 m) diameter concrete foundations, sunk from 43 to 73 feet (13 to 22 m) deep at night. The cylindrical piles had to clear the sites of the main and secondary roof beams of the new ticket hall and various low-level obstructions. The piles had to be built with wide footings to avoid them from collapsing. Service tunnels were constructed to carry water mains and telecom cables past the new ticket hall.[39] The umbrella deck was extended eastwards along Oxford Street to facilitate the construction of a connecting passageway between the old and new ticket halls during the weekend of the August Bank Holiday in 1966. Construction of the Victoria line station tunnels with their platforms, the new escalator shafts and the linking passages to the Central line platforms was carried out from access shafts sunk from nearby Cavendish Square, Upper Regent Street and Argyll Street.[note 6] For the construction of the southbound Victoria line platform tunnel, a special design of tunnel segment, fabricated with mild steel was adopted as there was limited space available for the construction of the platform tunnel.[39] A pre-stressed concrete raft was constructed below the Peter Robinson's third basement level as an extra precaution against settlement before driving the platform tunnel.[note 7] The interchange passageway between the Central line and the Bakerloo line in the area of the former junction with the Bakerloo line lift landing was replaced by the southbound Victoria line platform tunnel.[note 8] From there, a pilot tunnel Ventilation systems were rearranged with a new ventilation plant installed in the former Bakerloo line lift shaft. A new substation for the Bakerloo line was built at the bottom of the shaft.[note 9] With the additional escalators in place, the one-way circulation scheme was introduced and the remaining lifts were removed.[39]

The exit at Oxford Circus station, designed by Harry Bell Measures.

On 20 July 2011, the separate station buildings were given Grade II status by the Tourism and Heritage Minister on the advice of English Heritage. Part of the reason was the consistency of the design shown by architect Leslie Green on several stations.[7][note 12]

The station building on the northeast corner of Argyll Street and Oxford Street was designed by Harry Bell Measures. The upper storey offices designed by Delissa Joseph were later added in 1908. The building as a whole was described as a "vigorous and well-detailed composition" and the best preserved. This design of the station resembles the traditional design of a Central London Railway (CLR) station. The materials used are of pinkish-buff terracotta and red brick with slate roof. The detailed description of the facade is quoted below:[note 13]

"Wholly terracotta-clad with Mannerist detailing: pilasters flanking the entrances have capitals broken by masks and scroll brackets, supporting a cornice and frieze with moulded swags and cornucopias. Short elevation to Oxford Street contains main entrance (now exit), a broad segmental archway, originally glazed with timber mullions and now containing an openwork transom panel with diamond bracing. Large cartouche above rising into a gable, its cherub finial now lost. Long elevation to Argyll Street has two smaller segment-headed entrances, that to left cut down from an original window, and between them two similar openings containing shops. In centre, narrower doorway with glazed overlight gives access to upper floors. Curved corner section contains a metal-framed kiosk with bowed side sections bearing monograms, added before 1927 and now blocked."[8]

Opposite the Measures's building, the original two-storey Bakerloo line entrance was designed by Leslie Green which resembles the original architecture of the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway (BS&WR) stations. It is the only station to have the original tiled signage and a cartouche bearing the Underground Electric Railways (UERL) company insignia retained. Like other original BS&WR station designs, it features ox-blood red terracotta and a brick-clad steel frame. The terracotta was manufactured by Leeds Fireclay Co. Ltd. Unlike the other building, the offices above are not Grade II listed. The station name is carved with raised gilded lettering on the lower frieze to Argyll Street and Oxford Street.[9]

On this line, the station is between Regent's Park and Piccadilly Circus stations.[60] The typical off-peak service in trains per hour (tph) operating during off-peak hours weekdays and all day Saturday is as follows:[61]

• 11tph northbound to Queen's Park
• 3tph northbound to Stonebridge Park (via Queen's Park)
• 6tph northbound to Harrow & Wealdstone (via Queen's Park and Stonebridge Park)
• 20tph southbound to Elephant & Castle

On this line, the station is between Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road stations.[60] Trains generally run between West Ruislip and Epping, and between Ealing Broadway and Hainault (via Newbury Park), with some trains on the latter route continuing to Woodford via Grange Hill. The general frequency between trains is 3–10 minutes.[62]

Night Tube services on Friday and Saturday nights generally operate 6tph in each direction. The typical night tube service as of 2018 is:[62][63]

• 3tph eastbound to Hainault via Newbury Park
• 3tph eastbound to Loughton
• 3tph westbound to Ealing Broadway
• 3tph westbound to White City

On this line, the station is located between Warren Street and Green Park.[60] The typical off-peak service in trains per hour (tph) is 27 trains per hour in each direction to Walthamstow Central and Brixton,[64] with reduced frequencies of six trains per hour during Night Tube operations.[63][65]

London Bus routes 7, 12, 22, 55, 73, 88, 94, 98, 113, 139, 159, 390 and 453,[66] and night routes N3, N7, N8, N15, N18, N22, N55, N73, N98, N109, N113, N136, N137 and N207 serve the station. Additionally, bus routes 12, 88, 94, 139, 159, 390 and 453 provide a 24-hour bus service.[66][67]