Mott MacDonald, Hawkins\Brown and Laing O’Rourke have undertaken a study to present a vision for the future of Clapham Junction, examining how an integrated approach to development can offer significant benefits to both the station and the wider Battersea area.
Following the Department for Transport’s guidance on future Market Led Proposals published in March 2018, Mott MacDonald established a working group, called the London stations initiative, comprising infrastructure experts including architects Hawkins\Brown and construction partners Laing O’Rourke to support the DfT’s aspiration to increase investment in infrastructure through cross sector engagement.
Further enhanced by the impending arrival of Crossrail 2, the Initiative identified Clapham Junction Station, as the busiest interchange in London with connectivity to central, regional and international transport hubs with unique potential for transformational regeneration that can respond to the need of the growing community and changing live/work patterns. Informed by the understanding that building a new station around an existing station is hugely complex and expensive, the team undertook the challenge to see how the investment in the station and the railway could also bring value to the local community as well as the rail passengers.
The case study has analysed key objectives in order to develop an enhanced station with resilient capacity for future growth and a masterplan for Battersea facilitating active forms of travel through wider public realm improvements to meet the growing commuter demands, improve passenger experience, safety and accessibility.
Ian Watkins, project director at Mott MacDonald said: “We are seeing a growing requirement to regenerate and expand the infrastructure of our UK cities tied into the bigger question we all need to answer; how do we build sustainable cities in the future? In this context development opportunities, over and around transport hubs, have enormous potential to transform the landscape of our cities. Creating new neighbourhoods around transport hubs is a key ingredient to ensure UK cities are equipped to handle population growth, new ways of living and working, encouraging modal shift and reducing commuting. Clapham Junction has the potential to become a blueprint for a compact, mixed-use interchange hub that is more an extension of high street and public realm and less a gate line defined station concourse”
Harbinder Birdi, partner and head of infrastructure at Hawkins\Brown said: “As our cities become more polycentric, transport hubs are emerging as centres of vibrant mixed-use development that contribute to the sustainable growth of cities. By becoming more efficient with how we use this land we can connect communities currently separated by infrastructure, create new connections and unlock development sites to drive new revenue streams. Transport governing bodies increasingly recognise these and are turning to their land to generate revenue and new sources of income. The opportunity is particularly evident at Clapham Junction where there is genuine need to re-connect the social divide between the local communities north and south of the railway while contributing towards London’s growing housing and economic infrastructure needs.”
Phil Robinson, civil engineering leader for Laing O’Rourke’s engineering excellence group said: “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for transformation at Clapham Junction, providing significant benefits to both the local community and the wider transport network. The intertwined nature of the transport and urban realm improvements required, create the exciting prospect of delivering this as a single coordinated project, utilising offsite manufacturing techniques to accelerate construction and reduce disruption within the surrounding community.”
For a further look at our vision for Clapham Junction download our brochure below: