Opening of Bond Street Station on the Elizabeth Line by John McAslan + Partners
02/11/2022.
[LON] UK
metalocus, DIEGO DOMÍNGUEZ GONZÁLEZ
metalocus, DIEGO DOMÍNGUEZ GONZÁLEZ
British studio John McAslan + Partners has designed two new entrances to Bond Street Station in London, which opened on 24 October 2022, playing a key role in the urban environment from a practical and visual point of view.
The Hanover Square and Davies Street entrances provide access to the Elizabeth line, which connects the outskirts of the capital with the West End, accommodating nearly 140,000 daily journeys.
The Hanover Square and Davies Street entrances provide access to the Elizabeth line, which connects the outskirts of the capital with the West End, accommodating nearly 140,000 daily journeys.
Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners. Photograph by GG Archard.
Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners. Photograph by GG Archard.
Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners. Photograph by John McAslan + Partners.
Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners. Photograph by John McAslan + Partners.
Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners. Photograph by John McAslan + Partners.
Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners. Photograph by Transport for London.
Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners. Photograph by John McAslan + Partners.
Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners. Photograph by GG Archard.
Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners. Photograph by GG Archard.
Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners. Photograph by John McAslan + Partners.
Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners. Photograph by John McAslan + Partners.
Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners. Photograph by John McAslan + Partners.
Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners. Photograph by Transport for London.
Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners. Photograph by Paul Riddle.
Axonometric of the situation. Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners.
Section. Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners.
Section. Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners.
Elevation. Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners.
Elevation. Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners.
Elevation. Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners.
The new Bond Street station designed by John McAslan + Partners is a turning point for London's transport and communication, but also the surface, forming part of the urban redevelopment that includes new mixed-use buildings rising above the two new entrances, a new pedestrian plaza included in the project, Medici Courtyard, and landscaping improvements in Hanover Square.
The Elizabeth line entrance to Hanover Square features Georgian proportions and is clad in Portland stone. In contrast, the western entrance on Davies Street responds to a local vernacular of sandstone and red brick established by the period style of Victorian and Edwardian architecture. The spaces between the columns along the colonnades of the stations are filled with glazed window panels or bronze-framed ventilation panels and bronze-hinged louvered doors.
The tall, spacious interiors, with coffered ceilings, have clarity and ease of movement as their primary objective. Large floor-to-ceiling windows bring plenty of natural light into the lobbies, while generous views outside allow passengers to orient themselves. The fluted bronze columns reference Charles Holden's classic 1930s underground stations.
Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners. Photograph by GG Archard.
Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners. Photograph by GG Archard.
The Elizabeth line entrance to Hanover Square features Georgian proportions and is clad in Portland stone. In contrast, the western entrance on Davies Street responds to a local vernacular of sandstone and red brick established by the period style of Victorian and Edwardian architecture. The spaces between the columns along the colonnades of the stations are filled with glazed window panels or bronze-framed ventilation panels and bronze-hinged louvered doors.
The tall, spacious interiors, with coffered ceilings, have clarity and ease of movement as their primary objective. Large floor-to-ceiling windows bring plenty of natural light into the lobbies, while generous views outside allow passengers to orient themselves. The fluted bronze columns reference Charles Holden's classic 1930s underground stations.
Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners. Photograph by GG Archard.
Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners. Photograph by GG Archard.
Description of project by John McAslan + Partners
Two new spacious and refined colonnaded station entrances on Hanover Square and Davies Street designed by John McAslan + Partners and engineers WSP will accommodate nearly 140,000 Elizabeth line journeys daily through the newly opened Bond Street station, allowing direct access to the West End from outside the capital.
“Bond Street will be the jewel in the crown of the West End’s transport provision. It is truly spectacular and will provide a highly significant new link to one of the busiest shopping districts in the UK, enabling even further connectivity to jobs and leisure for people across London and the South East.”
Andy Byford, Transport for London’s Commissioner.
A work of major and intricate transport infrastructure and engineering, the new Bond Street station connects the Elizabeth line below ground to the platforms of London Underground’s existing Central and Jubilee lines. Above ground, it is an integral part of a transformative urban redevelopment embracing new mixed-used buildings rising above the two new entrances on Hanover Square and Davies Street. The scheme also incorporates a new pedestrian square, Medici Courtyard, the first in Mayfair for over a century. Significant landscape improvements, meanwhile, have been made to Hanover Square.
The station entrances play a key role - practically and visually - in an updated Mayfair streetscape, responding to and heightening the character of their immediate surroundings. The focus for John McAslan + Partners has been to articulate the entrances as confident and clearly legible front doors to the new station while responding carefully to the existing grain and fabric of this long-established and high-end quarter of central London. The response needed close engagement with the client, the City of Westminster and other local stakeholders.
In terms of local elements informing the station entrance designs, John McAslan + Partners looked at existing materials and character of Hanover Square and Davies Street. The dominant building materials of Hanover Square - one of the West End’s first Georgian squares - have been Portland stone and brick as dominant materials. The Hanover Square Elizabeth Line entrance exhibits Georgian proportions and is faced in Portland stone. In contrast, the western entrance on Davies Street responds to a local vernacular of sandstone and red brick established by the period style of Victorian and Edwardian architecture. Spaces between columns along the stations’ colonnades are filled with glazed window panels or bronze-framed ventilation panels and bronze-hinged grille doors.
Elizabeth Line’s Bond Street Station by John McAslan + Partners. Photograph by John McAslan + Partners.
The high and spacious, coffered ceilinged interiors of both station buildings are concerned primarily with clarity and ease of movement. Grand floor-to-ceiling colonnade windows bring generous daylight into the ticket halls while generous views out allow passengers, especially those leaving the station, to orient themselves. Both entrances employ a high-quality, pared-back palette of materials emphasising their simple, elegant scale and proportions. Fluted bronze columns are self-conscious references to the classic Underground stations designed by Charles Holden in the 1930s.
Wayfinding through the new step-free stations is intuitive across terrazzo floors to the rounded portals leading via escalator shafts - with bronze panelling above for decoration and sound absorption - to the uncluttered standardised Elizabeth Line passageways and platforms 28-metres below ground.
Three installations by British artist Darren Almond, with the support of the White Cube gallery, Selfridges and the City of London have been sited permanently above and around the escalators of the Davies Street entrance as part of the Art programme of the Elizabeth Line. A meditation on the mechanics of time and space, ‘Horizon Line’, ‘Shadow Line’ and ‘Time Line’ are cast in bronze and aluminium in the same aesthetic as the embossed numberplates that once adorned British Railway locomotives.
“Bond Street Station will be one of the busiest on the Elizabeth Line, providing a significant new gateway for those travelling to London’s West End. It was therefore important to create legible entrances while establishing a compelling narrative with the existing physical and cultural character of the area, referencing local material and form. We also wanted to lift the user experience through the use of daylight, generous linked spaces and the integration of artwork, maximising visibility and creating connections. We have achieved these ambitions with the expert and discreet engineering design of our partners WSP.“
John McAslan + Partners’ Head of Transport Colin Bennie.
More information
Architects
Collaborators
Multi-disciplinary Engineer WSP.
Client
Crossrail / Transport for London.
Contractor
Skanska/ Costain/ Engie
Contractor’s Consultants.- Hawkins \ Brown/ Arup.
Contractor’s Consultants.- Hawkins \ Brown/ Arup.
Dates
Opening.- 24 October 2022.
Photography
John McAslan, Aidan Potter, Natasha Manzaroli. John McAslan + Partners
The John McAslan + Partners studio, founded by John McAslan, Aidan Potter, Natasha Manzaroli, aims to hustle architecture that is rational and poetic, robust and charming.
John McAslan was born in Glasgow and educated at the University of Edinburgh, obtaining an MA in Architecture in 1977 and Diploma in 1978, along with the Diploma year prize. He trained in Boston USA with Cambridge Seven Associates before joining Richard Rogers and Partners in 1980. He co-founded Troughton McAslan in 1984 and John McAslan + Partners in 1993.
Aidan Potter is responsible for the practice’s Urban Design and Russian Portfolios. He has extensive experience in the design and management of complex urban developments, masterplanning and architecture. Aidan is one of the founding designers within the practice, having joined as a student in the 1980s. He has worked on most of the major national and international portfolio projects, notably the transformation of two significant industrial heritage sites in Moscow – the Stanislavsky Factory and the Bolshevik Factory, the latter including a new Museum of Russian Impressionism. He continues to work closely with John McAslan across the practice on the design of projects and design management.
Natasha Manzaroli is the Business Partner at JMP and works closely under the leadership of the Chairman and in collaboration with the Design Partner to define the strategic objectives of the practice. Her main focus is to oversee operational management, with overall control and responsibility for all financial aspects and how this feeds into the overarching strategy. She has held the financial management role within the practice for 20 years and has proven ability and a clear sense of what drives profits and cash within the business, along with the strategic agility to effect complex change management during economic turbulence.
John McAslan was born in Glasgow and educated at the University of Edinburgh, obtaining an MA in Architecture in 1977 and Diploma in 1978, along with the Diploma year prize. He trained in Boston USA with Cambridge Seven Associates before joining Richard Rogers and Partners in 1980. He co-founded Troughton McAslan in 1984 and John McAslan + Partners in 1993.
Aidan Potter is responsible for the practice’s Urban Design and Russian Portfolios. He has extensive experience in the design and management of complex urban developments, masterplanning and architecture. Aidan is one of the founding designers within the practice, having joined as a student in the 1980s. He has worked on most of the major national and international portfolio projects, notably the transformation of two significant industrial heritage sites in Moscow – the Stanislavsky Factory and the Bolshevik Factory, the latter including a new Museum of Russian Impressionism. He continues to work closely with John McAslan across the practice on the design of projects and design management.
Natasha Manzaroli is the Business Partner at JMP and works closely under the leadership of the Chairman and in collaboration with the Design Partner to define the strategic objectives of the practice. Her main focus is to oversee operational management, with overall control and responsibility for all financial aspects and how this feeds into the overarching strategy. She has held the financial management role within the practice for 20 years and has proven ability and a clear sense of what drives profits and cash within the business, along with the strategic agility to effect complex change management during economic turbulence.
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