London & South East

Canary Wharf Station

Crossrail Canary Wharf

When complete, Canary Wharf will be one of the largest Crossrail stations.

Like the nearby Canary Wharf Tube station, the new Crossrail station will be built in dock water, in this case the North Dock of West India Quay. The station and proposed retail and park areas will be six storeys high; approximately the size of One Canada Square lay on its side.

Retail areas are planned for four of the six storeys along with a landscaped park, restaurant and community facility on the top floor. The station will be covered by an elegant, semi open-air timber lattice roof, allowing views out over the dock, Canary Wharf and beyond.

The station development will provide a link between Canary Wharf and Poplar, currently severed by the North Dock. It also includes links with the Canary Wharf Estate, via Adam’s Place and the Jubilee Line and DLR Stations.

The station box is being constructed and designed on behalf of Crossrail by Canary Wharf Contractors Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Canary Wharf Group plc. It is being built for a fixed price of £500m, of which CWG is contributing £150m.

The station box was handed over to Crossrail in May 2012, ready for the arrival of the tunnel boring machines. When works are completed the site will be handed back to Canary Wharf Group to enable development of office space at North Quay, which already has planning permission.

The station design incorporates two parts – a huge 256 metre long station box sitting directly below a proposed oversite development.

The oversite development includes plans for 100,000 square feet of retail space and a roof-top park and community facility, semi-covered by an elegant timber lattice roof. The proposed roof will be made of translucent materials, letting the local community see, and encouraging them to visit, the new green space, shops, restaurants and facilities within.

The combined station and oversite development has been likened to a ship moored in the dock, reflecting Canary Wharf’s past as the centre for global maritime commerce and its future, better integrated with the local community and the rest of London.

Access from Canary Wharf at ground level will be via bridge links developed as part of the station development. From North Quay ground level access will be completed with the construction of the North Quay development. This will enable a direct link to the existing Aspen Way footbridge and from there to the DLR station and Poplar High Street.

The Station was designed in close consultation with the local community, London Borough of Tower Hamlets and CABE. Architectural and engineering firms involved in the design of the combined station/retail development include, Canary Wharf Contractors Limited, Tony Meadows Associates Adamson Associates, Foster and Partners, Arup Engineering and Gillespies.

The total funding envelope available to deliver Crossrail is £14.8bn. The Crossrail route will pass through 37 stations and run 118 km (73 miles) from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west, through new twin-bore 21 km (13 miles) tunnels to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east.

When Crossrail opens it will increase London’s rail-based transport network capacity by 10%, supporting regeneration and cutting journey times across the city. Crossrail services are due to commence through central London in 2018.

Crossrail is being delivered by Crossrail Limited (CRL). CRL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London and the Crossrail project is jointly sponsored by the Department for Transport and Transport for London.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said:

“This crucial project that I fought for will be of huge importance to the future of our city and these contracts will provide an immediate boost to employment in the UK.”

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Roma Publications