Area improvements for everyone
Old Street roundabout is a vital part of London’s strategic road network and crucial to the movement of traffic through the centre of London. A gateway to Hackney, the City and beyond, it has long been an accident blackspot, largely due to the volume of cyclists that use it, as well as a disorientating network of routes and road crossings for pedestrians.
Inaccessible and unwelcoming, the roundabout also causes a significant degree of community severance.
It is dominated by unattractive street edge clutter and there is an awkward juxtaposition of the infrastructure associated with the function of the station and the retail units below.
As part of a wider scheme for the Old Street roundabout area aimed at improving the site for cyclists, pedestrians, residents and local workers, WW+P with WSP and Morgan Sindall were asked to design a new station entrance to provide stepped access to St. Agnes Well and Old Street station, as well as a new pedestrian lift, clerestory, and back of house service lift.
Through working collaboratively together, the whole team is proud to put forward a new design direction for the entrance structure. The resulting design is a simple, well crafted, architectural solution that responds to the site and project constraints.
A grand sense of arrival and departure
The station entrance is an elegant glass structure with a biodiverse green roof, supported on a sculptural concrete tree column. The planted roof and ‘tree’ relate to and book-end the existing landscaping of the Promenade of Light along Old Street and the new public realm on the peninsula. The design maximises transparency and sightlines across the space to improve wayfinding and security.
The design of the new entrance has been carefully considered to provide a high-quality user experience, both on approach and from within. The double-height volume maximises daylight to the levels below, whilst providing a civic-scaled structure at this key city focal point, as well as a grand sense of arrival and departure.
Sustainable Design
We are proud to be involved in a project that is implementing cutting-edge sustainable design to help ensure that London is resilient to climate change. Working closely with Morgan Sindall and WSP we have developed an efficient construction sequence which uses off-site construction to reduce carbon-intensive activities on site.
Once complete, this notoriously polluted junction will be transformed into an engaging public realm with a selection of native and non-native tree and shrub species, carefully chosen to improve air quality and enhance public well-being. Permeable paving, rain gardens and the green roof will work together to create an adept flood defense system.