The original station was opened in 1867, the recent redevelopment is needed to improve the performance of this station, main need to suit euro stars approaching. This project was initiated by London and Continental Railways, a consortium of eight shareholders including Arup and other Partners. The construction started in 2001 and finished in 2007 with a huge cost of ?800 million. The new St Pancras international station opened on 14 November 2007 with a great ceremony with attendances of the Queen and some extensive publicity to introduce it as a public service. The station now is the terminus of East Midlands Trains for services from London to the cities of midland. The station also proudly provides direct passenger transportation with Euro star services to Paris, Brussels and Lille; First Capital Connect trains on the cross-London Thames link route; and some other services.
The new design was based on the old station, some improvements were introduced to make it better.
The arches soar high above, forming graceful curves, slender and yet strong above the pristine platforms of St Pancras Station. Light pours into this new international rail link to Paris and Europe from the vast, glazed central section of the stations roof, dispelling the dark, dirty atmosphere that has so long hung in the giant train shed.
St Pancras International is an ultra-inspiring entrance to London for Eurostar passengers, an exclamation mark punctuating British architectural glamour both old and new.
Set to open in just a few weeks, the station has been the subject of a restoration and modernisation project for some 10 years. The huge flat-roofed extension covers crisp white concrete platforms which extend seemingly endlessly out of the station, while shiny steel-clad travelators sit dormant, waiting to spew passengers from the departure area in the undercroft into the sun-lit arena of the historic station shed.
The most remarkable aspect of the plethora of works undertaken on this massive project is the restoration of the original train shed roof. Designed by engineer William Henry Barlow, on completion in 1868 it created the largest covered space in the world. Some 210m in length, spanning 75m and more than 30m high, its cast-iron arches have been painstakingly restored, while new glazing and acoustic panelling have been designed to replicate that originally installed.
The restoration of the roof is just one part of work on the project by Pascall & Watson Architects, and it is instantly impressive. Allison Peterson Smith, the practices director of projects, says: The roof is awe-inspiring. When you think that at the time of its construction, people were riding around in horse-and-carts, the immensity and complexity of the design is breathtaking, but to the untrained eye the beauty is in the simplicity and the repetitive form of the roof, and the gigantic space within.
Protected by a grade I listing and the subject of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act, the station roof has been restored to almost how it would have looked in 1868. This includes the inclusion of over 8,800sq m of glazing to the roof over 50% of its 15,150sq m area.
This amount of glazing far exceeds that allowed in new structures by modern regulations governing heat loss and energy efficiency, says Peterson Smith, but the project is special, and the work put in to ensure everything is right has been phenomenal.
Working with heritage adviser the Ingram Consultancy, Pascall & Watson built large-scale models of the new roof design to test materials and their interfaces for operability, and wind and water ingress.
The 25 cast-iron rib arches, trussed purlins, secondary rib rafters and diagonal cross-bracing have all been restored rather than replaced.
Structurally, the cast-iron arches are very sound. The impressive roof is supported under the platform level by 690 cast-iron columns and beams. This undercroft was once a huge storage area for beer transported by Midland Railway from Burton-on-Trent. It is now the international departures area, and the travelators and lifts that punch up to platform level cut through some cast-iron beams. Here, Arup has designed a ring-beam system to ensure that the structural integrity of the rib-arch roof is not compromised.
In order to enable this low-level structural work and a mountain of other construction on the platforms to go ahead while the roof was being restored, the 100 or so operatives at high level worked on scaffolding slung directly from the cast-iron rib arches.
In a rolling sequence, stepped platforms were built to sections of the roof with a giant crash deck beneath them to stop falling debris. Roof sections were then stripped, cleaned, repainted, and the new glazing and panelling installed. As each element was completed, operatives moved onto the next, maintaining rapid progress.
The new glazing system is an aluminium-frame cassette design highly modern and, importantly, low maintenance, as future access above the tracks must be kept to a minimum. Similarly, aluminium framing holds acoustic bats in place, where once timber was fixed. Above this is a steel deck liner, followed by battens and slate tiles.
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