Historic constraints above + below ground
The redesign of Victoria Station needed to address a serious overcrowding problem; passengers surging from the mainline station down to the tube frequently necessitated station closures at peak hours.
Our work was built on a thorough understanding of the brief and the physical relationships, historic context and constraints inherent in a site with such a long history of development. Technical challenges included: working around the underground services network and major sewers, keeping the existing areas operational at all times, complex interfaces with listed buildings, settlement issues, and working with the existing underground ventilation system.
Mapping these physical impediments was essential and our use of a 3D BIM environment to design achieved substantial savings and added value in clash detection and facilitating complex tunnelling techniques.
The architectural design was developed with close collaboration from the full range of engineering disciplines with static and dynamic passenger flow models and required a multi-discipline design approach to arrive at the final scheme.
The new northern ticket hall itself looks fantastic and the benefit to our customers will be felt straight away. Its design means that customers can easily and safely exit the station onto Victoria Street without having to cross the series of busy road junctions outside the station. Once completed in 2018, the new station will be double the size which will mean people will have quicker journeys, they will be able to move around more easily and there will be step-free access to the station for the first time.
A transformed station + urban realm
We are delivering a new Northern Ticket Hall, an extended Southern Ticket Hall, new pedestrian tunnelling connections and modernisations to existing parts of the station as well as new street level urban realm.
There’s a new entrance at Cardinal Place, a new ventilation shaft adjacent to Victoria Theatre, and a new Wilton Road entrance leading into a transformed urban realm square outside the mainline station known as “The Beach”.
The three-storey sub-surface ticket hall beneath Bressenden Place includes ticketing facilities, escalators and three lifts, providing step free access to the Victoria Line platforms. It is topped by a contemporary glass entrance situated in front of Cardinal Place shopping centre. The new ticket hall encourages passengers to use the entire length of the Victoria Line platform as it is fed from both ends, reducing the need for station entrance or gate line closures. It also means that people heading to the tube from Victoria Street will no longer have to cross several major roads to reach the entrance, easing congestion and improving safety.
