Thursday 24 July 2008

Rebuilding Tottenham Court Road station

Tottenham Court Road station is being massively rebuilt and expanded over the next 8 years - both to accomodate Crossrail and increase capacity - and an exhibition about what they're doing opened at New London Architecture today.

Here's the money shot (click to enlarge):
(1) is the new Crossrail platforms; (2) is a new escalator down to the Northern Line platforms; (3) is Crossrail's Oxford Street entrance (which looks like this inside); (4) is an escalator down to the Crossrail platforms, obscured by a new ventilation and emergency stair structure; (5) is the massively expanded ticket hall; and (6) is a new set of escalators down to the Central Line.

To build this, they've got to dig up a big chunk of the West End:
The right half of the site is the plaza outside Centre Point, while the left half is a block of buildings to be demolished - including as noted, The Astoria. In the middle is where the top end of Charing Cross Road currently is. They'll also be demolishing the block to the south of Sutton Row to build the Crossrail ventilation shaft (4). Everything currently on the site of the western ticket hall (3) will also be going.


The timescale for this is glacial, with preparatory works long since started, demolition and construction beginning next year. The new piazza entrance (on the southeast corner) opens 2013, and the piazza itself opens in 2015. Charing Cross Road will be diverted from 2010 until 2014. Construction at the station won't be finished until 2016.

In contrast, the exhibition lasts only until August 9.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

'Glacial' timescales perhaps, but it will have been completed and operational a full three years before the Bakerloo line PFI modernisation is finished.

Mind you, it's taken LRT/LUL and Metronet since 2000 to erect a new disabled-accessible footbridge at Pinner and they STILL haven't commissioned the lifts on it yet!

Alan said...

It looks as though crossrail is above the Northern Line. Is that correct? I imagined crossrail would be really deep to avoid everything else.

Neil said...

Oh My. I work in Centrepoint. That's going to be a pretty sight out of my office window for the next eight years....

jamesup said...

Seems a missed opertunity that they will not widen the eastern portal of oxford street a bit - the street noticably narrows and they could correct that slightly.

Alan Ji said...

I'm pleased they've begun this intricate and difficult work. The Crossrail Act 2008 (yeah !) gives TfL powers to get stuck in to station work long before tunnelling begins.

The stations in tunnel cost much the same as the tunnels, so why not let LU passengers benefit from them before Crossrail opens?