The Story of a Station — Oxford Circus
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THE STORY OF A STATION - OXFORD CIRCUS INTRODUCTION When the engineers rebuilding Oxford Circus of unfortunate delays in the opening of the Baker station as part of the Victoria Line project unex- Street and Waterloo Railway. Reconstruction be- pectedly struck tunnel iron they were rightly per- fore a station even opens may not be unique, but plexed. Next to the Bakerloo Line platforms, it it is certainly very unusual. In this instance the appeared to be a disused passenger subway leading evidence remained buried for six decades. sharply downwards, but where to? It was not It is too easy to take today’s Oxfordd Circus shown on any of the engineering drawings com- station for granted until a minor upset causes piled from recent surveys and a compendium of some inconvenience. The followinge attempts to early station plans. chart the development of the stationt since its ear- These engineers could not have realised that liest days, and in particular shows how a large they were in many ways carrying on a tradition Underground station has actuallyn evolved piece- started by their colleagues almost exactly 60 years meal in that time, with hardlyi a moment when earlier when they, too, were rebuilding Oxford some sort of significant rdevelopment is going on Circus station. The significance of the earlier occa- there. Perhaps it will bring home that stations, sion was that the station had not yet opened but like people, have a lifep of their own. the engineers were dealing as expeditiously as pos- sible with what was the latest in a long sequence e THE VICINITY b The name Oxford Street must be known mediately to the south of Oxford Street, the other throughout much of the world as one of London’s road being called King (now Kingley) Street. chief shopping streets, though this fame extends Argyllo Street, which was the next street to the back little more than a century. As its title sug- eastt of Swallow Street, was connected to Oxford gests, Oxford Street acquired its name through Street via a narrow passage about 70 feet long. being part of the former major route between the tArgyll Street ran south for about two hundred cities of London and Oxford. However the road is yards before turning to the left to join Great of at least Roman origin, and prior to the pre- oMarlborough Street. The northern end of Swallow dominance of the Oxford route formed part of the Street formed the boundary between the parishes main thoroughfare to the West from London vian of St James’s (east side) and St Georges (west side). Newgate, Tyburn, Brentford and Staines. The Oxford Street was the northern boundary of both road was commonly known as Tyburn Lane -until these parishes, separating them from St Maryle- the eighteenth century. Authorities vary as to the bone. Opposite Swallow Street, on the north side exact name at about this time, the namest Tyburn of Oxford Street, subsequent construction pro- Lane, Oxford Road and Oxford Street being used duced a block of buildings bounded by Princes without apparent discrimination. Miecklejohn’sh Street, to the west, and Bolsover Street, to the “London, a Short History” (1898) quotes 1729 as east. The latter continued as Edward Street and the first occasion of the use of theg name Oxford disappeared into the blocks of buildings rapidly Street. i taking up all the available rind to the New Road The area to the West ofr the Charing Cross (now Marylebone Road). and Tottenham Court Roads was built up rapidly The northern side of Oxford Street in this vi- between about 1720 and 1750,y largely on pasture cinity-and indeed much of the land to the north- land. The buildings erected along Oxford Street became part of the estate of Viscount Portland in were largely residentialp although many of these whose possession the land remains. East of Swal- were subsequently adapted to incorporate shops low Street and to the south of Oxford Street the on the ground flooro level. land formerly belonged to the Mercers Company. The only noteworthy roads in the vicinity to Disputes with the monarchy resulted in the land run northwardsC was Tottenham Court Road and changing hands several times, until it was ob- Marylebone Lane. To the south there was a fairly tained by the Maddox family who in due course intense street pattern dividing the innumerable split it ; the portion on which the oldest part of residential blocks which lie between Oxford Street the station was built became part of the Pollen es- and Piccadilly. One of the through routes was tate. John Kemble, second Duke of Argyll, came known as Swallow Street, this divided almost im- to occupy a house just off King Street in 1706 and started to acquire many of the leases of nearby properties up to Oxford Street, and in Argyll being officially denoted as “Regent Circus”. The Street, subsequently named after him. prestigious new artery significantly increased the Little changed until under the direction of the importance of the surrounding areas and many Prince Regent (later George IV) the architect John notable shops soon opened. The new businesses Nash created the spacious thoroughfare from Lan- were very successful. In turn, subsequent lease re- caster Place to the New Road, at the same time newals attracted increases in ground rents of the laying out Regent’s Park. The necessary Act of order of nine-fold and inevitably this became a Parliament was obtained in 1813, however short- significant factor in determining the future style of age of cash delayed completion in its entirety until business which would be conducted in the street 1840. The southern portion of the new route be- and its environs. came known as Regent Street. North of Piccadilly Not unsurprisingly, the existence ofd two loca- it comprised a broad new road on a graceful curve. tions called Regent Circus, both in the same road In due course it intercepted Swallow Street and and only a 10-minutes walk apart,e proved ulti- absorbed the course of that road to a point just mately to be inconvenient, if nott irksome. In the south of Oxford Street (leaving only a short natural way of things, a method of distinguishing stretch of Swallow Street running between Picca- between them gradually evolved.n The exact proc- dilly and Regent Street). Regent Street diverted a ess will probably never be known,i but “Wonderful little to the east of the former road to cross Oxford London” (1930) states that,r “it was the bus con- Street and then absorbed Bolsover and Edward ductors who first used the present names,” thus Streets where the new route diverted to the west, the northern Circus pbecame “Oxford Circus” and to form the new Langham Place, and then to the the southern one “Piccadilly Circus”. Official rec- north forming the impressive Portland Place. At ognition duly followed,e apparently between 1873 the Piccadilly and Oxford Street intersections “cir- and 1889. cuses” were created as architectural niceties, both b A STATION FOR THE CENTRAL LONDON RAILWAY o The traffic using the ancient route from the and tOxford Street, with the longer side of the rec- City via Newgate, Holborn, St Giles Circus, Ox- tangle running along Argyll Street. ford Street and Bayswater Road to Shepherd’s t The former restricted access to Argyll Street Bush increased at a phenomenal rate as London had been widened many years previously but the expanded outwards. Traffic was at least to a small odemolition required for the new station allowed extent ameliorated by the construction of the Met- for further minor improvement. Existing property ropolitan and District railways “Inner Circle” un-n on the site comprised 237 and 239 Oxford Street, derground railway, which ran parallel. However which were respectively Henry White and Sons, the apparent engineering breakthrough of -deep booksellers and Willox and Co, chemists. In Ar- level tube electric railways-exemplified by the City gyll Street properties were numbers 15 and 16, and South London Railway (CSLR)-suggestedt new which contained a multiplicity of minor busi- solutions, and the Central London Railway bill of nesses. 1890 was one of numerous further suchh schemes. Sub-contractor for the Oxford Circus section The advantage of tube lines was the reduction of of line was Walter Scott and Co, to whom work inconvenience during constructiong as streets did was let early in 1896. Possession of the station site not need digging up, a matter iwhich would have had been obtained by the time of the June 1896 made new sub-surface constructionr along a route half yearly report and by the end of that year con- like Oxford Street quite impracticable. siderable progress had been made with shafts and Nevertheless oppositiony to the Bill came from some tunnelling had been started. At 80 feet, the many quarters and it duly failed. The line was to platform tunnels were fairly deep below street have run from Queensp Road to the City, and join level. Access was to be by four lifts (occupying two up with the CSLR at King William Street. How- shafts) and a separate stairway shaft. An 1896 ever the companyo persisted and after meeting plan (illustrated) shows the proposed platform and many of the objections the royal assent was given passageway layout and the proposed one-way pas- on 5th AugustC 1891, the terminals having been senger flow. This one-way system also appears to adjusted to Shepherd’s Bush in the west and Bank have included the stairway shaft with separate up in the east. Thirteen stations were to be con- and down flights-intertwined in the same shaft-are structed, one of which was at Oxford Circus.