URBAN REALM DESIGN |
Liverpool Street Station Public Realm | Crossrail
Liverpool Street Station is one of the principal gateways into the City of London. A destination for thousands of daily commuters and overseas visitors via Stansted Airport. The new Crossrail (renamed as the Elizabeth Line) underground station connects with the existing transport facilities at Moorgate and Liverpool Street to create one of Europe’s busiest transport interchanges.
Design responses to these highly complex sites needed to satisfy the aspirations of a wide variety of stakeholders, partners and landowners while respecting local conservation areas and historic buildings. This called for close and productive working relationships with the station architects, Wilkinson Eyre, in order to maximise the potential of this space. While the design aesthetic was a vital consideration, our key focus was on striking an effective balance between the many and different demands for movement as well as the demand for a new public space in the City.
To assist in this, we undertook detailed pedestrian modelling based on footfall forecasts and existing video survey evidence to understand the different levels of activity at different times of day. Plotting likely pedestrian ‘desire lines’ through the space was a critical task and a major influence on the layout of the space.
A simple carpet of yorkstone ‘planks’ (long, thin slabs) was proposed for the ground plane, laid on a diagonal to pick up the main pedestrian desire lines and subtleties in topography. Two bus & taxi routes cut through the space without significantly affecting the singular nature of the pedestrian priority public space.
Three large circular ‘island’ planters were placed along the grain of the paving to avoid blocking the key pedestrian route. The these were sized to allow significant trees to be planted to help humanise the scale of the space and create some shade. Single seats, all with backs and arm rests were arranged around the perimeters of the planters to allow views across the space in all directions.
A similar approach was taken for the linear Moorfields space with three planters with trees running through the centre of the space.
The new public spaces will be open to the public in 2018 when the station construction work is complete.
Design responses to these highly complex sites needed to satisfy the aspirations of a wide variety of stakeholders, partners and landowners while respecting local conservation areas and historic buildings. This called for close and productive working relationships with the station architects, Wilkinson Eyre, in order to maximise the potential of this space. While the design aesthetic was a vital consideration, our key focus was on striking an effective balance between the many and different demands for movement as well as the demand for a new public space in the City.
To assist in this, we undertook detailed pedestrian modelling based on footfall forecasts and existing video survey evidence to understand the different levels of activity at different times of day. Plotting likely pedestrian ‘desire lines’ through the space was a critical task and a major influence on the layout of the space.
A simple carpet of yorkstone ‘planks’ (long, thin slabs) was proposed for the ground plane, laid on a diagonal to pick up the main pedestrian desire lines and subtleties in topography. Two bus & taxi routes cut through the space without significantly affecting the singular nature of the pedestrian priority public space.
Three large circular ‘island’ planters were placed along the grain of the paving to avoid blocking the key pedestrian route. The these were sized to allow significant trees to be planted to help humanise the scale of the space and create some shade. Single seats, all with backs and arm rests were arranged around the perimeters of the planters to allow views across the space in all directions.
A similar approach was taken for the linear Moorfields space with three planters with trees running through the centre of the space.
The new public spaces will be open to the public in 2018 when the station construction work is complete.
