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London Bridge Station | Southwark

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#1 ·
The new London Bridge station!




This station is considered to be the world's oldest terminus in existance: its been operating since 1836 and is now 170 years old. It could also be considered the first elevated station in the world: the entire station is built above street level of several million bricks. Currently the commuter section of the station is split between 15 platforms: 1-6 are through platforms (to the other London termini of London Cannon Street and London Charing Cross) and 8-16 are terminal platforms. The station is served by South Eastern, Thameslink and Southern train services.

Although one of the less used of the London termini (there are 13), the commuter rail section of the station is used by some 48mn people, while the Northern and Jubilee London Underground lines are used by some 44mn it is used by some 47,685,000 48mn commuters, meaning each year 92mn people use the station or roughly 300,000 each weekday.

The 300m+ London Bridge Tower will partially go over this station while the office block shown in the pictures is still being re-designed to accomodate the current historical aspects of the terminal and the office market. The station is currently not heavily congested, but with the vast Thames Gateway project, London Bridge Station is set to get busier.




Client: Network Rail
Location: London SE1
Size: 750,000sq ft


This 12 acre scheme for London Bridge Station was developed following a masterplanning study prepared by tp bennett architects. The study was based on a thorough appraisal of urban design, town planning, rights to light and commercial viability, and provided Network Rail (then Railtrack) with clear, concise recommendations for the redevelopment of the station.

The design scheme fundamentally reconfigures and enlarges the existing station, providing for 50% uplift in passenger numbers. It also incorporates a major new retail concourse and a landmark air rights office building above the station. bennett urban planning provided town planning advice and coordinated an extraordinarily large consultation exercise necessary to accommodate the views of the many local interest groups and interested national bodies. The scheme gained detailed planning and listed building consent in December 2000.



















 
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#28 ·
Bob said:
Rather than 6 through platforms and 9 terminating ones there will be 9 through platforms and 6 terminating ones. This setup does allow better train flow. There will be additional track capacity to the west of the station including doubling the single track bottleneck on the Thameslink lines.

What this means, is that a lot of serives from South London and beyond that currently terminate at London Bridge will now continue accross the river giving them better access to the City and Mid Town, without having to use the tube, thereby relieving some of the pressure on the City branch of the Northern Line.
 
#31 ·
delores said:
so when is this project projected to start? if ever?
The Department for Transport are involved with this so who knows. I understand Network Rail have been rebuilding a project team in the last few months after it had been reduced to just the skeleton staff after they failed to get planning permission with the first design. A lot depends on London Bridge Station and the surrounding works which are subject to a public inquiry, now under way. Theoretically, and taking this from a timescale suggested last year 2011 is not out of the question for completion with construction starting early 2008.
 
#34 ·
London Bridge Station | Southwark | U/C

LONDON BRIDGE STATION

Hey guys, I just found that the other thread was quite hard to find, and as seen we dont have a thread for this in the London sub forum that maybe we probably should. Anywho, this is taken from the thread in the Transport, Urban Planning and Infrastructure sub forum.

Not sure if any of the details are out of date, but the renders remain appropriate.



This station is considered to be the world's oldest terminus in existance: its been operating since 1836 and is now 170 years old. It could also be considered the first elevated station in the world: the entire station is built above street level of several million bricks. Currently the commuter section of the station is split between 15 platforms: 1-6 are through platforms (to the other London termini of London Cannon Street and London Charing Cross) and 8-16 are terminal platforms. The station is served by South Eastern, Thameslink and Southern train services.

Although one of the less used of the London termini (there are 13), the commuter rail section of the station is used by some 48mn people, while the Northern and Jubilee London Underground lines are used by some 44mn it is used by some 47,685,000 48mn commuters, meaning each year 92mn people use the station or roughly 300,000 each weekday.

The 300m+ London Bridge Tower will partially go over this station while the office block shown in the pictures is still being re-designed to accomodate the current historical aspects of the terminal and the office market. The station is currently not heavily congested, but with the vast Thames Gateway project, London Bridge Station is set to get busier.




Client: Network Rail
Location: London SE1
Size: 750,000sq ft


This 12 acre scheme for London Bridge Station was developed following a masterplanning study prepared by tp bennett architects. The study was based on a thorough appraisal of urban design, town planning, rights to light and commercial viability, and provided Network Rail (then Railtrack) with clear, concise recommendations for the redevelopment of the station.

The design scheme fundamentally reconfigures and enlarges the existing station, providing for 50% uplift in passenger numbers. It also incorporates a major new retail concourse and a landmark air rights office building above the station. bennett urban planning provided town planning advice and coordinated an extraordinarily large consultation exercise necessary to accommodate the views of the many local interest groups and interested national bodies. The scheme gained detailed planning and listed building consent in December 2000.























With the Shard:

 
#37 ·
I think it would be best to stick to the thread in the Transport forum.

There isn't any construction activity going on now at the station, so this shouldn't be in the construction forum.

Furthermore, with other construction threads being regularly updated, this thread will soon fall away and be forgotten.
 
#43 ·
The shard works will include improvements to the existing concourse and entrance and bus station. The real new station concourse - under the platforms - will not be built until after the shard is finished and the new viaduct over London Bridge Road is built. It'll be a while yet before the fancy images in the OP will come to pass.
 
#45 ·
I think the main development will not start until after the Olympics.Personally it would of made more sense to do the whole thing at once minus the recession ofcoarse and avoid the years and years of endless construction works until the damned thing is built whenever that will be.
 
#47 ·
Does this plan mean completely removing the old train shed?
The images of the huge new block above the platforms suggest it goes all the way across - will any of the historic parts remain?
Also, am I right in thinking the plan is to demolish the old building in the middle of this pic? I've always liked that for the rich colour at the end of the view from More London.
 
#48 ·
Yes it removes the old shed. It does not involve demolishing the building you link to. I'm surprised nobody has made a fuss about the demolition. In my opinion a few columns are ok, but most of it is very cheap victorian or replacement fixes. Look up at the roof and it's dire. However, much smaller changes have gone to public inquiry and generally someone will always complain about change.
 
#55 ·
Yeah Agreed that it is a really bad station. its just how it has been inconsistently added to over the years... may sound stupid... but it annoys me how there is no visual connection to the through platforms from the terminating ones - they are practically treated at two stations... and the bus station tacked on the front with the horrible brown and red space frame roof... dont get me started!
 
#59 · (Edited)
it annoys me how there is no visual connection to the through platforms from the terminating ones - they are practically treated at two stations...
It was, in fact, built as two separate stations, like Victoria. Hence the lack of cohesion in the present design. The terminus part of the station was left almost untouched during the 1970s work. (The present train-shed roof dates back much further.)

From an architectural perspective, London Bridge's two sections are harder to unify visually than those at Victoria. The latter is just a pair of terminating stations built at the same level; all that was needed was opening up an arch or two in the dividing wall.

London Bridge—which has a complex history—is a terminus station with a through station built on viaduct at a higher level alongside it. If aesthetics were the primary concern, it would have been better to build the terminus platforms at the same level as the through ones, so that you could see the through platforms from the terminators. However, the lower-level terminus platforms mean that passengers don't have to climb up a footbridge, walk above the tracks, then climb back down again to reach the through platforms: they're already at a level which lets them walk under the arches of the viaduct, so one grade change is eliminated, speeding up the interchange process a little.
 
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