Project Description

Situated in North London, West Hampstead railway station is a London Overground station on the North London line, in a busy part of Zone 2 between Brondesbury and Finchley Road.

With more than 5 million passengers a year using West Hampstead Overgound, improvements were needed not only to improve the overall aesthetic of the station, which would include a new bright and airy entrance, but also to give travellers more space by widening the platforms and improving accessibility with step-free access from street to platform.

The number of ticket gates was doubled, allowing quicker access for passengers, and a new concourse running the length of the whole platform and linking to a central footpath running has made it quicker and easier for the passengers to board and disembark.

Having worked with main contractor Buckingham Group on other projects, they approached us to work with them on the redevelopment of West Hampstead Overground station. Our scope was to install a brick-slip system along the internal and external walls of the platform.

The client had specified Alumasc’s brick slip system for the works, a durable solution used to achieve a premium result. The Alumasc brick slip system performs particularly well in highly trafficked areas such as this, being highly resistant to impact and able to withstand adverse weather conditions.

The lightweight nature of brick slips means they are increasingly being used for new projects and refurbishments, as they overcome many of the constraints associated with traditional brick-based construction such as foundation and structural frame costs. Installation is straightforward and therefore quicker than brick laying, helping to improve project completion times. Not only cost effective and quick to install, brick slips are a low maintenance solution, requiring little in the way of aftercare.

We were brought on site in February 2018 to begin work on installing the system, which was predominantly red brick slip, with a white panel to give the impression of a ceramic tile. To reduce the impact on passengers, works were scheduled to be delivered in stages and to take into account the live operation of the railway.

We worked alongside many other trades on site to facilitate the completion of the project; this can be a challenge on any development as often it requires waiting for the previous trade to finish their work in order to free up the area, but in this case there were also time constraints in terms of access to the station.

The logistics of working around other trades on site, in addition to a busy train station, meant it was necessary to have two teams assigned to the project, working in shifts. One team would work during the day and the other at night, so that we were on hand to work when the live train line was isolated and turned off.

Buckingham Group arranged for towers to be constructed on the platforms every night to allow for work to continue, which were subsequently dismantled and removed at the end of every shift so that passengers could continue to use the platform during the day. The set up and break down of the towers meant there was limited time to work each night, so it was essential that our experienced team were on hand to begin work as soon as an area was available.

Now complete, the refurbishment will make travelling through West Hampstead station a much more enjoyable experience and we were delighted to work on this as one of our first major railway projects.

Tony Hill, Managing Director at Eden Facades, said: “At Eden Facades we take pride in our ability to adapt to any challenge a project throws at us, and in this case we were able to deploy our teams to site 24 hours a day to ensure the project was completed to our usual high standard.”