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Abbey Wood Station Public Realm | Crossrail
The Elizabeth Line (formerly know as Crossrail) will open to the public in 2018. Urban Movement have been working on the design of the public realm at Abbey Wood since 2010 within a project team that includes the station architects Fereday Pollard, officers from Bexley and Greenwich Councils and the Crossrail Urban Realm Team. The conceptual and detailed designs were guided by a wider neighbourhood strategy developed by the Urban Movement team whilst working at Urban Initiatives.
The design integrates the new station building into the existing and evolving townscape with a new public realm that prioritises the pedestrian and cyclist, whilst maintaining and civilising vehicle access and through-traffic. Strategically, the public realm provides legible links from the station to public transport (buses and taxis) and provides new walking and cycling infrastructure that connects into the local networks.
At street level, on Felixstowe and Gayton Roads, the design will reinforce the existing ‘village’ character with trees, shrub planting and seats using traditional streetscape materials of yorkstone paving slabs, granite setts and kerbs. The carriageways are surfaced in concrete setts to help a create a visual unity to the spaces. The materials and details reference the adjacent public realm projects at Cross Quarter and Wilton Road, which both extend the ‘village’ centre north and south of the station, respectively. Public ‘plazas’ are provided at the station entrances with seating, cycle parking and wayfinding information. At the upper level, accessed off the Harrow Manorway flyover, the main station entrance will face a forecourt surfaced in a mix of granite ‘planks’ (long, narrow slabs). This simple grey palette references the brutalism of the flyover structure and totem sign with their exposed aggregate concrete finishes.
The proposals for Gayton and Felixstowe Roads are broadly similar as they function in the same way. The streetscape is detailed to prioritise pedestrians and cyclists by slowing vehicles down with narrow carriageways and tight corners. Taxi ranks along with space for drop off/pick up activity, short stay parking and loading bays are all provided in raised footway bays. Generous ‘flush’ crossing areas are provided in front of the station entrances, on the main pedestrian routes.
Harrow Manorway has been redesigned to incorporate footways on both sides along with cycle lanes, bus lanes and a general traffic lane in both directions. A wide ‘Toucan’ crossing sits directly opposite the station entrance and separates the two bus stops. The carriageway through this section will be surfaced in coloured asphalt `imprinted’ with a pattern to match the granite slabs used on the forecourt and footways, to visually unify the space.
Two new bus shelters have been designed by the station architect to match the language of the new station building with. These will protect several seats, with backs and arms rests, space for wheel chairs and ample standing room.
With an anticipated high demand for cycle parking, stands are distributed throughout the public realm to serve the local amenities with bigger concentrations, aimed at station users, in a ‘hub’ under the flyover on the north side. The existing bus shelter, on the eastern side of the flyover, will be retained and refurbished as a new cycle shelter with double height racks to maximise capacity.
The current value of the urban realm project is estimated at £2.5million and is due to complete in 2019, after the station becomes operational.
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