The last of the Elizabeth line stations to have a building built above the station has been handed over to the developer, Grosvenor for an office development. The site, at 65 Davies Street will sit above the back of Bond Street station where a classic Edwardian style brick building occupied by the University of Arts had been based.
That building had to be demolished to make space for the Elizabeth line construction site, and will now be redeveloped as a new office block, with an additional entrance to the Elizabeth line platforms included in the ground floor.
The replacement office block will have 6 floors of office space above the ground floor, and in the basement, there will be space for 80 bike spaces, 80 lockers and shower facilities, with a goods lift to get cyclists in and out of the building. The basement and some of the corner of the building will be shared with TfL for the Elizabeth line.
The rear corner of the building, facing onto Gilbert Street houses the huge ventilation and access shaft for the railway tunnels deep underground, and that will be clad in terracotta tiles.
If the office construction method is similar to that used by Galliard Homes at nearby Tottenham Court Road West, then the entire upper building will be physically separate from the ground floor box built by Crossrail, with the building above sitting on heavy vibration-absorbing buffers. Likewise, the floors are not bolted directly into the tall ventilation shaft, but sit on similar vibration absorbing pads.
There are two huge fans inside the ventilation shaft – and each of them is roughly five stories high, all hidden inside the concrete vent shaft. The fans have been designed to be no louder than background noise when in standard use, although they can ramp up significantly should there be an urgent need for a lot of air to be sucked out of the tunnels – such as during a fire.
The office development will be delivered by Multiplex, and is due for completion in September 2023.
Graeme Craig, Director of Commercial Development at TfL, said: “This site, in one of London’s most prominent locations, will provide fantastic new office space, supporting the city’s growth and recovery, and we are pleased to have handed the site over to Grosvenor Britain & Ireland. A key part of our huge development pipeline, the Elizabeth line schemes are directly opening up opportunities for new offices, homes and jobs, and are raising vital revenue to reinvest in London’s transport network.”
This office block also sits next to the South Molton Triangle, another development by Grosvenor.