When it opens next year, the Elizabeth line’s station at Liverpool Street will be so long that it creates an entirely new link to the Northern line that was never possible before.
This is thanks to the fact that the Liverpool Street station will reach all the way to Moorgate, where it will link with the existing Northern line tube station. While most of the central stations on the Elizabeth line will have two entrances, the Liverpool Street station will be the only one to link with two separate existing tube stations.
A blending of two stations is not unlike the complex at Bank, but a lot easier to find your way around.
For Open House, there was a chance to see a small part of this gigantic future tube station — the ticket hall area at Liverpool Street.
What should have been a fairly simple box dug into the ground proved to be rather less than simple. The site was initially taken over by archaeologists, who removed some 4,000 bodies buried there by the Bedlam hospital.
Then they had to remove a rather large amount of services, power, sewers, telecoms and the like, and move them sideways to allow the new ticket hall box to be excavated.
What will be left is a shallow space underneath the road, with three escalators down to the ticket hall from a large glass box at street level. If you’ve seen the new entrances at Tottenham Court Road, then it’ll be a familiar design.
One of the more distinctive features will be the ceiling, which was are not supposed to refer to as a pin-stripe suit, but in this city region it certainly looks inspired by the uniform of the local workers.
However, the design is more engineering than purely artistic as it serves a couple of key functions.
Aesthetically, it breaks up the otherwise flat roof and that helps to make the long expanse of the ticket hall feel that the ceiling isn’t too low down. The other benefit is that the angular design and the “stripes” help break up soundwaves, so the noise of people using the station can be reduced, making it slightly quieter than it would otherwise have been.
A subtle sparkle of mica in the fibre-reinforced white concrete will glow with indirect lighting.
Another bank of three escalators will take people down to the Elizabeth line, and here will also include one of a number of “inclined lifts” that are being installed along the line.
Rather than a standard up/down lift, which will perfectly functional do often leave people with a long narrow corridor to get to it, here the lifts will glide down the same angle as the escalators.
It’s likely to be a mini tourist attraction in its own right.
Rather arcanely, had there been two lifts, then we would have been able to call it a funicular railway, which would have meant there was a mini-railway inside the ticket office.
Which would have been fun.
“the Liverpool Street station will be the only one to link with two separate existing tube stations” – surely Farringdon/Barbican is similar?
And being arcane, two lifts would only be a funicular if they counter-balanced each other by (simplistically) being attached to opposite ends of the same cable looping round at the top. If two had been provided then they would almost certainly have been mechanically independent so one could still work if the other failed. So, boringly, nothing more than two lifts.
I don’t think there will be a link with Barbican as the eastern ticket hall is too far from the platforms.
Think the Barbican link was in original plan then taken out for cost reasons but now it’s back in and will be delivered as part of the Barbican ISP return in 2018.
Wont it be confusing to enter the Crossrail Station called Liverpool Street via a station called Moorgate? What about when you leave and want to come back in afterwards? The tourists will love this. “Moorgate for Liverpool Street”? Moorgate [Liverpool Street] on the roundels?
Is it confusing to enter a station called Monument to go and catch the DLR from Bank?
I love telling my visitors – “Remember, Queensway Station is on Bayswater and Bayswater Station is on Queensway” 🙂
I come into Liverpool Street station regularly and need to walk to Moorgate to get a 141 bus to go to Southgate Road, where I live just off it.
Once the two stations are linked, I’ve be able to walk the link underground in the dry, if it is pouring with rain.
It should be quicker, due to the two down and two up escalators, I will use.
@ Anonymous Widower Your suggestion of entering Liverpool Street Station to exit Moorgate Station sounds fine but you may find yourself being charged a fare equivalent to Liverpool Street to Moorgate on the Circle Line as the system may not know the way you travelled?
Anyone wanting to experience one of these incline lifts should visit Greenford Station on the Central Line which has one from street UP to platforms!
As for using Moorgate and Liverpool Street Station names it’s worth remembering that when someone suggested a combined name for Bank and Monument the fire brigade said they preferred the seperate names as it helped prevent confusion as to location of an incident and remember Circle Line will still have two separate stops . In fact looking to the future one way of improving interchange and capacity would be to combine stations that are near to each other with White City and Wood Lane Stations linked together in a similar style to that found at West Ham Station.
It should also be remembered that Moorgate Station also has Great Northern Thameslink services which may eventually become part of TFL .
@ Anonymous widower @ Melvyn I use the Great Northern Thameslink into Moorgate every day and while it may be convenient for me to use the “cut through” to get out at Liverpool street, I can’t imagine TFL want people to do that. Presumably you would have to touch out of the Great Northern side and then touch in again to access the Elizabeth line platform and then touch out again at Liverpool street..: Or am I wrong?
The name liverpool Street station is very confusing particularly at Harwich and Stansted where there are trains to Liverpool Lime Street. it should have been renamed as Broadgate when the Queen opened the rebuilt Great Eastern Station. Cross should then be Broadgate/Moorgate with Central Line & Circle as plain Broadgate and Northern, Great Northern & Circle as plain Moorgate It is bad practice to name a station ………street/road when that is a place name. eg Edgware Road & Finchley Road
Yes. An ex-colleague of mine used to live near Cambridge Heath station and once came across a very distressed young Chinese lady wanting to know where the university was.