Our transport heritage is generally not of a quality that requires the application of aspic, but one that lends itself to adaptation and growth. It is a heritage quality born of industrial development and adaptation, a function of public use rather than architectural adulation.  As a consequence it is a body of work that can be readily repaired, adjusted and added to in a considered, contemporary manner.

At Surbiton station we brought wholly modern techniques to resolve the time-weathered reinforcement of this archetypical 1930s building. At Farringdon our wholly contemporary roof is being added to the existing Grade II listed train shed in a manner that is sympathetic by reason of structural gymnastics rather than pastiche. At Deptford we can happily place an entirely modern, regeneratively iconic and wholly accessible station structure immediately adjacent to and penetrating the Grade II listed viaduct, to the unquestionable benefit of both.

The value to be placed on transport heritage is as much about the future as the past. This is a well-built architecture that talks of stability and continuity, an architectural reflection of a society to which we all aspire. That the public at large should see value in retaining and re-using its cultural heritage is no surprise and, should modern standards and future use not quite fit, then the justification for carefully considered adaptation is a role that we as transport architects can only cherish.

The apparently illogical passenger interchange bridge went in a couple of years ago and few would guess at how many iterations of the plan were drawn and analysed in the late 90’s before everyone was either happy with its form or sufficiently exasperated by the process. Unlike the Borough High Street bridge, this one’s final architectural treatment is nothing like the one we designed, but 12 years is a long time. The plan however remains true to our final configuration, emerging as it did from the close correlation of passenger flows, cable pits, installation complexities and the available recesses in the surrounding buildings.

It is now particularly encouraging to see the extension to the Grade II listed station roof going up or, more exactly, being lowered in.  English Heritage was rather complementary about our design solution, stating that it out-designed a certain other firm’s proposal for the extension to the St Pancras roof.  To us, the added joy was that this was a roof that owed much of its detailed form to the need to build it up the road, trundle it along Turnmill Street, and then launch it across London Underground and Network Rail tracks simultaneously, and have each section in place before dawn, whatever the weather.

Borough High Street Bridge and the Farringdon roof are clear exponents of the necessary amalgam of the many different disciplines involved in transport infrastructure, and reinforce the truism that the art of construction methodology is an equal partner at the design table.

It is surely about time that this noble skill had a recognised professional title?

We of course took lots of pictures of the arrival which, in good parental fashion, we will subject you to in the coming weeks.

Celebrated examples include the bright red telephone boxes and post boxes that line our most established routes through the city.

Alongside these familiar static objects, there is a long held relationship between public transport in the Capital and bold, red symbols, such as the classic Routemaster bus, vanguard of the public transport that permeates our city.

The red of our public infrastructure extends to our formal and historic traditions, the strength and certainty of red being a symbol of law and order, power and privilege.

At Bromley by Bow station, on the edge of the 2012 Olympic site, a striking red box, creating a bold architectural statement, joins modernity and tradition by reference to the iconic symbols of London.

Last week we reconvened over breakfast to compare notes, and what a lot of notes there were.  Ideas to benefit the practice, our clients and operators, the financiers, the contracting fraternity, the statutory authorities, the facilities management team, our sub-consultants and, by no means least, our bank manager.

Of course there were disbenefits too, nothing’s perfect and evangelism isn’t really our thing.  The debate dwelled for a while on how BIM could best be supported by, could accompany and could bring together the armoury of disparate processes and procedures by which the industry currently develops our infrastructure.

The homework had been thorough and it was clear that we were by no means alone in having this debate, that useful discussion was being had in other organisations too, although perhaps ours was one of the few doing so over blueberry muffins.

Being a bunch of incurable designers, the debate naturally digressed into new ideas, new ways in which, with doubtless more than a few programming tweaks, BIM could provide all the things the construction industry needs but doesn’t yet know it wants.  The coffee was particularly strong.

But what we recognised but didn’t really solve was the change necessary in the industry’s procurement structure, change that will be needed to enable the full benefits, the unencumbered ownership, the cross-discipline understanding to be realised.  We had to conclude that BIM is a system that will only ever reach its full potential when the industry is truly working as one to deliver our infrastructure.

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said: “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

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TMA will now take a well-earned Christmas Break until January, and prepare ourselves for an even better next year.

Thank you for your support and we wish you the compliments of the season.

In the business of transport infrastructure, project gestation periods can be long, people come and go, priorities change and only the classic designs survive. So when you see something you started designing 15 years ago coming to fruition, there is even more joy in witnessing the birth.

The modern foody buzz that is Borough Market was a very different place in 1995, when Railtrack asked us to put together a team to design a new viaduct for Thameslink 2000.  It is to their considerable credit that they should chose an architect to head up such a project, and the strength of the design that has emerged has fully supported that decision.

At an early stage we changed the reference alignment. We recognised that this was as much an urban design challenge as an engineering one, and that the economy of the traditional market stalls relied in part on their produce and in part on the character of their surroundings.  The protection of important ‘marker’ buildings, the careful arrangement of the viaduct supports, the ability to re-employ the Victorian market roofs, the refinement of rail levels to retain the purpose of the upper floors of the buildings over which the viaduct sailed. The importance not only of structural functionality but also of the views of each viaduct component, from the streets, the surrounding houses, from underneath and from above.

As we approached the Transport & Works Act proceedings the discussions with the Borough Market Trustees, the Dean of the Cathedral, the local businesses and the local people were regular, serious and fruitful.  On the one side there was an expanding public exhibition lorry that we filled with images, models, animations and commentary, and on the other a strong collaborative group of market traders and a local beer named in opposition to the project.

The challenge was to develop a viaduct of elegance and grace, that was simple, quick and clean to build and that would result in a renewed streetscape that complimented and enhanced the character and economy of Borough Market.

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There were radiuses, cants and clearances to address, acoustic barriers, signal sightlines track drainage and rights of light.  There were streetscapes to design, terraced houses to adapt, ancient graveyards to avoid, pubs to re-plan, the Northern line to slide past, traffic systems to reconfigure, buildings to replace, London Bridge forecourt to rearrange.  And then there was the Bridge.

As the highlight of the viaduct and the public face of the Thameslink project, the quality of the bridge across Borough High Street was paramount. The heavy railway bowstring we inherited was compromised and compromising. The location called for special treatment, a solution that solved all the technical, dimensional, spatial, visual, constructible, maintainable complexities, and yet looked simple, elegant, composed. A force for regeneration and a joy to the eye, a blend of architecture, urban design, art and engineering.

“…the proposals for the Borough High Street Bridge are for a dramatic, landmark structure … which in my view would enhance the visual effect of the railway crossing the street. By its unique design, it would add to the sense of place, and indicate that the designers considered the place to be worthy of special efforts. It would contribute to the continuity of notable buildings that make up the diversity which reflects the area’s long history, identified by the Borough Council as a characteristic of the conservation area.

Thameslink 2000 Public Inquiry – Inspectors Report



The station has lived in our office since 2005. It has been reviewed, developed, compressed, adjusted, coordinated, discussed and visualised; morphing from the generous arrangement of the CLRL reference design to the tailored solution that our client, the Canary Wharf Group, wished to build.

While we planned the station to an affordable minimum, and designed a fit out that captures the qualities of Canary Wharf, Arup developed a construction method of considerable invention, holding back the waters of the dock with the Giken piles that line the station footprint.

What can be seen in the pictures is not an excavation; it is a hole in the water. The station concourse and platforms will be dug out beneath a slab at the bottom of the hole.  The hole will have a station entrance rising at each end, with the space between filled with shopping.

Smaller, better, more inventive, the combination of the TMA plan, the Arup invention and the Canary Wharf strength in construction management is saving £350,000,000 from the original project costs, an ambition that is now permeating the rest of the Crossrail project.

When the station is complete Adamson Associates and Foster and Partners will top it off with shops and restaurants, a public park and a roof skinned in the same material as our Finsbury Park Interchange.

Crossrail will bring the tunnels, the trains and the people and, in 2018, yet another thriving hub of infrastructure will be complete.