Daniel Moylan: Weaving Crossrail’s Magic into London’s Rich Tapestry

As the Mayor pressed the button on 15 May to launch the first pile into North Quay dock at Canary Wharf, many Crossrail supporters, among them the capital’s business leaders, celebrated that this much heralded project is now finally underway.

For some, the focus of this mammoth scheme will now understandably be below ground – the engineers rising to the challenge of carving two large tunnels beneath the footprint of central London and the creation and training of the skilled workforce who will undertake this task.

The prize is joining the mainline railways east and west of the capital to provide new, modern, high-frequency, high-capacity services, relieving overcrowded Tube and rail services, and supporting London’s long-term success.

What must not be forgotten, however, is what happens above ground – the huge opportunities that Crossrail provides to unlock long-term improvements to the urban environment and to regenerate and grow the economy of key areas of our city. This is not just looking at the stations and buildings above them, but also the vital spaces between them, which I believe has still to be better understood and managed – the public realm.

Such considerations are more acute as we address the carbon and sustainability challenges with which all urban areas must contend. We will inevitably have to increase the density of our cities – Crossrail underpins a denser London given the quantum shift in the transport carrying capacity it provides – which leads to how we craft, use and share space.

Let us take the West End, Europe’s largest retail centre with a global recognition and brand, vital to the London and UK economy.

Crossrail will, in effect, create two gateways into and out of the West End business and retail districts, one at Tottenham Court Road and one at Bond Street. The stations will cater for many more passengers, which are already increasing year-by-year, with better interchange, passenger movement and step free access. The ticket hall at the new Tottenham Court Road station will be nearly six times the size of the current one.

Looking out from the stations, there will be four new entrances to the south of Oxford Street, at Davies Street, Hanover Square, Dean Street and Centre Point. Public realm opportunities exist around each of these. There are considerations about wayfinding and how the street environment relates to the new entrances, which will almost certainly become landmarks in their own right as many Tube stations are today.

The over-site development above the rebuilt stations will require careful attention, including the context in which they sit and also the further development that Crossrail spurs or is already underway, such as is the case with the Central St Giles development at Tottenham Court Road.

Both boroughs, Westminster and Camden, are working closely with Transport for London (TfL) and business organisations, including the Business Improvement District and the New West End Company (NWEC), to look at integrating the space between the stations.

Works are already underway at Oxford Circus to improve the pedestrian movement at this busiest of intersections as part of the programme, which provides improvements to the major retail streets of Oxford Street, Regents Street and Bond Street (the ORB programme). And at the area east and north around Tottenham Court Road station, the London Borough of Camden is looking at schemes to improve traffic flows and road layouts, which in turn offers opportunities such as wider pavements, lighting, tree planting, reduced street clutter and cycling enhancements. This programme would connect with the new piazza created outside Centre Point and remodelled road layout as part of the Crossrail and Tube rebuilding programme.

The point of outlining this is to show that large public transport infrastructure can no longer be planned in isolation from its setting and the developments which will take place around and above it.

Work has started along the Crossrail route to ensure that the public realm designs take into account the existing context and how the area will change in the future. For example, at Farringdon the special historic built environment which needs to be sensitively handled also has the capacity for redevelopment, especially as it represents the crossover point between Crossrail and Thameslink; two massive transport investments totalling over £20bn.

The stations at Paddington, Whitechapel and Custom House are three other locations with significant opportunities.

The Crossrail Act, which governs the building of the Crossrail programme, puts in place requirements which seek to ensure that the over-site developments are successfully realised. The requirement that planning applications for the over-site developments are submitted within two years of Crossrail construction starting means that these buildings are designed side-by-side with the stations and urban realm.

Close working with boroughs, other public sector partners and over station developers is essential if Mayoral and borough aspirations are to be met, and the return on the huge Crossrail investment is to be maximised.

It will be a challenge for all parties: for Crossrail Ltd, TfL and Network Rail the main bodies involved in delivering the scheme; for boroughs to take up the opportunities to exploit this huge investment; and to business, in particular the regeneration and property development industry. As well as thinking about the ‘inside’ of a building, it has to be recognised that the contribution to the success of the project also relies upon its relationship with the external environment and the ‘threshold’ over which the public will arrive.

We are in partly uncharted territory given Crossrail is a scheme of a size and scale not seen for decades, but there are useful examples on which to draw.

The architecture of the Jubilee Line Extension is greatly admired and there are some high quality public spaces including Canary Wharf and some well designed public transport interchanges such as at Canada Water. But there are also some missed opportunities – over station developments have never happened at Bermondsey and Southwark stations and are examples of where delivery stopped at the station entrance.

There are also a number of schemes which were once thought of as challenging and controversial, and are now helping to define a vision for the public realm. Two major central London projects come to mind – the transformation of Kensington High Street, in my borough, is one, and the pedestrianisation of the Trafalgar Square another.

Smaller scale schemes such as the shared surface outside the Tube station at Sloane Square, the public seating and water feature created in the Old Bailey in the city and in the colonisation of the street edges by cafes and restaurants in St Christopher’s Place in the West End also provide both insight into the benefits of such interventions as well as some of the guiding principles about how we approach the space between buildings.

Exhibition Road, currently being transformed, will also be a guide, as could the evolving scheme for Chancery Lane which is being developed by the City of London Corporation and Westminster and Camden Councils with the private sector.

There are constraints of course – Crossrail has to meet safety and security requirements and designs will need to cater for the significant flows of passengers and respond to other public transport links, cycling and walking. Funding is also by no means limitless.

Crossrail Ltd, now a subsidiary of TfL, is working closely with other parts of the TfL family, with developers, the boroughs, the Greater London Authority (GLA), the LDA and English Heritage to tackle these issues; and in outer London with Network Rail on design and interchange at key locations where existing stations will be significantly reconstructed including Ilford, Abbey Wood and Ealing Broadway.

Crossrail is also seeking advice from a Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) Panel which is offering constructive advice on the designs at an early stage. The project can therefore benefit from leading national experts on architecture, engineering and the urban realm.

The development of our city has taken place over centuries, a proverbial patchwork quilt, albeit with threads running throughout. Crossrail is an opportunity to remake part of the quilt through a broad partnership, enabling future generations to not only experience a modern new railway, but also a much improved environment when they step out from the stations.