Dissused parts of Oxford Circus

We spent a while with the plan in the first image from google today, trying to match the passages based on the lift shafts, but the plan isn't particularly clear unfortunatley.

From what we've found so far it does appear to be accurate, but it's quite hard to make out some of the tunnels on it due to the overlay and shading that the map has. Standing inside the old Bakerloo spiral stairs shaft and having an 09 go less than 6ft away is certainly quite an experience yes! Not sure if passengers on a passing train would be able to see us through the metal grill but that'd be a bit of a shock for them too!

My recollection is that there are five shafts altogether, If you stand in Argyll Street with your back to Oxford Street you have the disused station building to your right with Oxford Circus House offices above and to the left is the Argyll Street entrance/exit to the current station. Also to the left the offices above the station are Western House. Argyll Street divides the shafts, to the right in the disused station is a disused lift shaft which was totally empty the last time that I was in it many years ago, a slightly smaller diameter shaft next to it is/was the vent shaft.
On the left entering the station from Argyll Street at the bottom of the stairs is a manhole cover beneath which lies a disused lift shaft which was also empty apart from a small platform and a short ladder down from the manhole. The platform could be seen easily by torchlight from the bottom of the shaft. Within the Argyll Street circulating area the substation is constructed on several floors in a disused lift shaft beneath. IO expect passengers would be amazed to learn that they are traversing the cap of a disused shaft every time they enter/exit the Argyll Street entrance but of course such is the case at other stations to such as Moorgate.
It must be 25 years since I last worked in the disused areas of OXO but I recall the shafts as I ran a 104 pair cable from Western House to Oxford Circus House via the two empty shafts on either side of Argyll Street. With no cable runs in the shafts themselves and given the weight of the cable I had to run it in two halves lowering it from the top of each shaft where each was secured and tying off at the bottom of each shaft, rejoining the two halves via main distribution frame terminations and jumpering in the disused area CER.
As to the fifth shaft it was the only one that I did not enter but I believe it to be between the two shafts beneath the ticket hall/circulating area mentioned above.

Thanks for the information, extremely helpful and interesting. That's the first time I've seen those particular diagrams on Mike Horne's website, they are fantastic, exactly what I was hoping for. Most of the tunnels that it shows, in particular on the Bakerloo side have now been destroyed or built through in some form or another as far as I can work out, although I think the corridor shown as 'P9' on Plan 7 does still partially exist, complete with tiling, handrails and a very old poster! I could have got my bearings in a mix and be completely wrong, but I'll try and get some photos. The CLR spiral stairs shaft is now used as some kind of air vent, possibly linked into the large fans installed above the platforms and is therefore fairly loud and pretty dusty! The original tiling is still visible in the Bakerloo spiral stair shaft.

Here's a few low quality photos of what is known as 'Area 10', below the Bakerloo and Victoria Line platforms. The tunnels were used during the construction of the Victoria Line to remove spoil.

Also buried within the Intranet are some civil asset location plans, which go in to some further detail. Like all such resources however, they tend to answer one question and then raise new ones!

The Victoria Line station tunnels at OXC were constructed from a worksite in the south-eastern corner of Cavendish Square, with heading tunnels connecting to both the NB and SB Victoria Line. The Cavendish Square shafts were backfilled following the completion of construction works, however at least some of the construction headings still exist. I *believe* that the area where the Victoria Line SER is now located is part of this. One day I'll get round to doing a track walk on that part of the Victoria Line!

There is also a good set of DVDs on the construction of the Victoria Line comprising BTF films made at the time, one of these goes in to quite a bit of detail about Oxford Circus.