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