FUTURE-PROOFING LONDON BRIDGE
Thameslink Programme Director SIMON BLANCHFLOWER tells PAUL STEPHEN how his team worked with local stake holder store develop London’ s oldest station and prepare it for an even busier future.
Sitting at the heart of Infrastructure Projects’ dynamic portfolio is the visually impressive redevelopment of London Bridge station.
Scheduled for completion in January 2018, it is a spectacular showcase for the delivery of significant capacity improvements and largescale passenger benefits by sensitively adapting existing infrastructure.
Built in 1836, London Bridge is the capital’s oldest station. Network Rail was permitted to remove listed structures for the work to take place, provided it had a robust design in place that would enhance the historical urban environment.
The redesign is a key element of the £7 billion Thameslink programme which will result in a greatly expanded cross-London network linking the Midland Main Line and Great Northern routes to destinations in Sussex and Kent. In total, the project will increase capacity at Britain’s fourth busiest station by 65% - from 2018 the new dedicated Thameslink platforms will accommodate 16 trains per hour in each direction during during the peak.
On the eastern approaches to London Bridge a new dive under has been built at Bermondsey to further increase capacity, while complementary major station improvements have been made at Farringdon and Blackfriars.
Key to the project is the new concourse at London Bridge. Two-thirds of it opened in
“In total, the project will increase capacity at Britain’ s fourth busiest station by 65%-from 2018, new Thames link platforms will handle 16 trains per hour in each direction during the peak.
August 2016, but once complete it will be larger than the football pitch at Wembley Stadium. Two new entrances have also been constructed to better connect the surrounding areas, and ample space is provided for retail and leisure activities.
Gaining Permission
Authority for much of the station reconstruction was granted via a Transport & Works Act (TWA) order granted by the Secretary of State for Transport. However, separate planning consent was needed from Southwark Council to alter and demolish parts of the station’s historical fabric.
Thameslink Programme Director Simon Blanchflower says: “The original TWA published in October 2006 gave us overall compulsory purchase powers to acquire the extra land we needed and the power to divert highways and utilities, but we still needed to apply for second planning permission for London Bridge station itself, which I led.
“That main piece of work took place in 2011, and we formed a very successful collaborative relationship with Southwark Council’s planning and heritage bodies to come up with a scheme that was appropriate for the station and fitted well within the overall context in which it sits.
“We worked really closely with the local authority through the pre-application process to understand its needs and requirements prior to making our submission. The key lesson is that the more you invest ‘up front’ in the planning process, the easier is it to deliver your product, especially when you are in a collaborative relationship.”
New Access
One of the biggest selling points of the new design and an expanded station footprint was the opening of two new entrances on Tooley Street and St Thomas Street. These improve accessibility through the station where it had previously been a barrier between areas to north and south. Southwark Council also viewed the proposed layout as an opportunity to regenerate and enhance the surrounding area.
Strong efforts were also made to protect or restore much of the station’s Victorian heritage, and full justification had to be given by Blanchflower and his team in the unavoidable case of its removal.
He adds: “A lot of the work we did was around exploring solutions concerning which parts of the building could be conserved within the upgrade and those that could not. For instance, the Grade II-listed train shed above the terminating platforms could not be retained due to the revised track layout, so we made an agreement to salvage what we could and enable it to be re-erected elsewhere and preserved. I’m pleased to say that it has now gone to Aberystwyth to be utilised as part of a heritage railway museum.
“On St Thomas Street, there were listed arches which could be retained, and we’ve restored the brickwork. The arch design has been replicated within the new part of the station, which has been well received by heritage groups.
“It shows that we’ve been able to enhance the heritage of the place, which is a key element of the whole consent process.”
Blanchflower says that obtaining consents has been made easier by the work of organisations such as the Railway Heritage Trust, which is well placed to give advice on striking a balance between meeting the operational needs of the railway, and the conservation of items of historical or architectural interest.
In addition to making local authorities more sympathetic to NR’s plans for delivering major capacity improvements, he says that it has also encouraged designers to treat historical features sympathetically, and as more of an asset. For instance, original quadripartite arches located beneath the platforms at London Bridge were not listed structures, but were mostly retained and modern replica four-way arches built to create a seamless transition between older parts of the station and the new concourse.
Network Rail was also required to enter into a Section 106 agreement with Southwark Council – a legal contract to deliver certain conditions attached to planning permission, including sustainability requirements as well as providing recruitment opportunities. Rather than viewing this as a burden, NR embraced these conditions.
“We are a publically funded organisation, which precludes certain ways of addressing Section 106 requirements. We cannot, for example, contribute large sums financially. But we’ve done some valuable work by hiring 61 apprentices, provided training to 200 long-term unemployed local residents, and work experience to more than 30 students. We also delivered a successful outreach programme with local schools and colleges by engaging with over 1,000 students on opportunities within construction.
“Southwark Council is extremely pleased with the contribution we’ve made economically and socially to the Borough, and we’re happy to give something back to a community that we are affecting with this work.”
The success of Thameslink’s consents and planning team will not be lost now that the project is almost over; it is currently being captured in good practice guides to ensure that it is fed into NR’s strategy for future projects. Resources will also be provided to members of Blanchflower’s team to help support the deployment of some of these methods when they move on to new projects.
Simon concludes: “The people involved with London Bridge will be its greatest advocates when they leave Thameslink. A lot of their success is to do with attitude, and you can either see consents as a constraint or as framework for delivery in high-profile, critical locations. We don’t want to battle against local planners, we want to work with them to achieve the outcomes we’ve agreed, as we have so successfully at London Bridge.”