King’s Cross Station Redevelopment Programme
King’s Cross Station is the southern terminus for the East Coast Main Line, which is one of Britain’s major railroad arteries serving cities such as Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh. It also hosts outer-suburban services to Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire.
The original Lewis Cubitt designed King’s Cross Station and was opened in 1852 with two platforms. By 1972, the station had 11 platforms and British Rail built what was intended as a temporary structure at the front of the station to accommodate the greater passenger throughput. However, by the turn of the 21st Century, it was clear that the station needed a significant upgrade to cope with projected demand and provide a better interchange for passengers.
Today over 47 million people use King’s Cross every year.
King’s Cross Station Redevelopment Programme
This complicated redevelopment has involved:
- constructing a 1,700 tonne geodesic steel and glass dome over the top of a London Underground ticket hall
- reconstruction of platforms 1 and 8 and shortening of platforms 5 to 8 to enlarge the concourse
- a new glass footbridge and escalators serving platforms 1 to 8
- a new 12 car platform (300m)
- 4,000 m² of refurbished office space
- 20,000 m² of renewed main shed roof
- 2,500m² of photovoltaic panels to generate 10% of the station’s power needs.
All this has proceeded without impacting normal station operations.
King’s Cross Station Redevelopment Programme
The main objective of the project was to provide station capacity to handle projected peak hour passenger demand within a more attractive retail and transport interchange environment.
The main outputs were:
- a new western concourse, four times the size of the existing one from 2,000m² to 8,000m²
- wider range and quality of commercial outlets
- better interchange with London Underground and St Pancras International Station
- renewed main shed roof to provide better lighting.
King’s Cross Station Redevelopment Programme
Client: UK Department of Transport
Location: London, UK
Start date: 2008
End date: 2012
Duration: 42 months
Contract value: £550m
Services provided: Programme management, station development including architectural conceptual planning, station planning