The Northern Ticket Hall at King’s Cross St Pancras Underground Station was awarded the Institution of Civil Engineering (ICE) London Infrastructure Award at a ceremony held in London on 3 March 2010.
Arup acted as lead designer for the project, working alongside architect Allies and Morrison as sub consultant.
The ticket hall performed well against engineering excellence criteria such as creativity, innovation, sustainability, environmental sensitivity and benefits to the client and wider public. The judges commented: “The rush hour crush endured by commuters at Kings Cross Station is now a distant memory thanks to a brand new underground ticket hall and pedestrian tunnels. The result is a fine engineering achievement and valuable new addition to London’s infrastructure.”
Work to the major ticket hall and pedestrian tunnels, at one of the busiest stations on the London Underground network, was completed in November 2009. The major collective achievement was threading 300m of tunnels, and the four storey underground structure under and around the Kings Cross train shed and the heritage listed Great Northern Hotel.
Innovative construction techniques were developed for the deep excavations and tunnels to avoid damage to surrounding listed buildings and to maintain the operational London railway. The completed ticket hall has delivered brand new, state-of-the-art facilities, doubling the capacity of the station, reducing congestion and improving accessibility.