The vision for Woolwich station really comes from its unique location it's a significant public
building but it sits within the Woolwich Arsenal site a very important historic site and we've used
this public building to help reconnect the Arsenal with Woolwich now over the years for various
reasons the Arsenal has become very separated and part of the vision was how do we use this building
to reconnect the Arsenal site as a public site with Woolwich town centre it's a military site
it's got some very robust and strong powerful architecture and it's responding
to that robustness reflecting it in the materials the treatment of the structure
the third thing that drove the vision was really this particular part of the site
we're on one edge of Dial Arch Square. Dial Arch Square is the original entrance into the site and
it has a much more delicate feel the buildings are older 18th century buildings I think the first one
is 17th century they're all listed one of them grade one so they form a charming little space
and so it's responding to this unique setting has really driven the vision the station itself
completes the eastern side of that square so it's a very important building and while it's small
the portal has a clear span of about 27 meters and that monumental scale gives the station its kind
of presence because it's competing with some very big buildings all this new housing on the site
people's experience of the station really begins with the journey from Woolwich center
and from Beresford Square which really was the old historic opening into the Woolwich Arsenal site so
we've got a super crossing now a major road which allows for big flows of people to come across
and then the portal the big portal signifies what is a major new public building so then you
come into this space which is the main concourse it's a very simple station there's one entrance
so you really come into this it's a very sort of simple elegant movement pattern through this space
and down through the escalators with natural light from the window beyond
I mean Woolwich stations really quite unique because of the development that
the station supports so one of the engineering challenges was to embrace significant development
within the station structure the station itself supports eight stories of housing
and alongside there are five towers up to about 25-30 stories
another challenge perhaps not a challenge this site is quite unusual because as we excavated
the building this building is thanet sand so the earth here that we were excavating is this
fine almost coral sand that is like you would see in a children's sandpit so over 99% of the
soil was reused and when we dug down and we cast the concrete walls you could see in the concrete
walls through the sand you could see the line of an old riverbed which hadn't run through this
site since Roman times but it was part of that geology whether that's a challenge or not it's
very interesting from an engineering point of view the story of the Dead Man's Penny we should really
call it plaque of condolence so after World War One after the Great War every military fatality
was marked with a plaque of condolence which was cast out of bronze there was a design competition
to design that it was won by Edward Carter Preston and if you forgive the pun it's a very Edwardian
design but there's something it's of its time now as we are about 100 years since the Armistice
Day we decided it was appropriate to use that as a kind of reminder and a decorative motif
so we have we have a lot of ventilation that's required throughout the station and we've used
perforated aluminium metal panels and we've used the perforations to create a decorative a
large-scale decorative motif based on Edward Carter Preston's design there are also other
historic elements the cladding to the entrance has these heavy bronze panels but they are softened if
you like decorated with a rifling design which is specific to this site so there are two companies
of artillery were based on this site and they were known as the Royal Regiment of Artillery and their
colours are red blue with gold highlights so we've used the regimental colours as a motif
on the platform the Royal Engineers also they're blue and red so you'll notice that
half the columns are done blue and red and half of the columns have a have a yellow highlight
here we've got the sinuous concrete beams very strong powerful elements but with a
hint of delicacy because this is very much based around passenger experience
and then brick is the predominant material over most of the site and so there's a wide
variety of bricks we've chosen a darker brick which goes down the escalator shaft and that's
you know reflects that kind of industrial feel and the history of the building we've got
brown roof with plants growing on it a sedum roof now there's some very tall buildings around so the
roofs can be seen from above so that was quite important but it also encourages wildlife so
it's part of the regeneration of the site not just the regeneration for people and the experience of
living here but regeneration from industry regeneration to nature so the public realm
design was done hand in hand with Gillespies and it's a critical part of the user experience
it serves to reconnect the town centre which has been severed by the main road to the Arsenal site
and this major new public building and it's the public realm really celebrates
this this public building to arrive at a central London station and see trees and a
square surrounded by 18th century brick buildings it's really quite an unusual arrival experience
and the public realm is really a key part of that experience
the whole project was a fascinating process because when Crossrail was first mooted there was
never a station proposed at Woolwich and we were employed initially by the developer Berkeley Homes
who are master planning the whole site and there was an extraordinary alliance
of the local authority - Royal Borough of Greenwich, the MP who was Nick Raynsford at
the time, the developer Berkeley Homes together with Crossrail lobbying to put a station here
the station is justified by the fantastic regenerative benefits it has for this site
and the wider Woolwich area we know that the Royal Borough of Greenwich is rightly very proud because
they played an important part in getting the station here in the first place and the Elizabeth
line connection is a big deal the architecture is only a part of that but I really hope this
building will be loved for its simplicity and its robustness as part of that passenger experience