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| The new concourse (Photo: Network Rail) |
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| The new Tooley Street entrance (Photo: Team London Bridge) |
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| Two thirds of the new concourse has been opened. Photo courtesy of Network Rail |
Southern has confirmed that the reduced peak time evening service from London Bridge to Brockley and beyond will continue for the next four weeks - and let's face it, probably the next year.
Southern has confirmed that, due to the ongoing Thameslink disruption, the reduced peak time train service from London Bridge to Brockley will continue next week - and likely a lot longer. They write:
These arrangements will remain in place between Monday 12th and Friday 16th January 2015.
We continue to monitor the service at London Bridge and assess if any long term changes to train services are required.
The Thameslink upgrade work, which required the suspension of London Bridge train services over Christmas and which has caused severe delays to the services this week, since they resumed is going to cause further pain, with the announcement that Brockley will lose five rush-hour trains until Friday, and possibly for the longer term.
The announcement from Network Rail says:
"Over the festive break we undertook 16 days of work rebuilding two new platforms, removing and replacing 3km of track and installing new signalling into London Bridge. This work was completed on time.
"However, the new timetable has proved challenging to manage. We have reviewed this and made some immediate changes to a small number of evening peak services which will reduce the pressure on the infrastructure and allow us to deliver a more punctual service that passengers deserve. We will monitor the service this week and assess if any longer term changes are required.
"We have reviewed the operation of the station concourse, placed more staff at London Bridge, and implemented additional crowd control measures to separate passengers entering and exiting trains. By the end of the week, we will have additional passenger information screens, so the concourse is used more evenly.
"To avoid a repeat of the last two nights' disruption, we have made some immediate changes to a small number of evening peak services, which will reduce the pressure on the infrastructure and allow us to deliver an improved service.
"The trains that are being withdrawn are five London Bridge to West Croydon services. They are: 16.36, 17.06, 17.38, 18.06, 18.36. Three West Croydon services into London Bridge are also withdrawn: 17.12, 18.13, 17.42.
"We are withdrawing these services as alternative routes are available for passengers who normally take those trains. Passengers for Brockley, Honor Oak Park, Forest Hill and Sydenham will have a half-hourly service."
Network Rail has launched the world's most expensive pro-cycling campaign in history.
You've probably all been grumbling about this for some time, but worth repeating the news that the disruption at London Bridge is nearly upon us as Network Rail's £6.5 billion station upgrade project gets under-way in earnest.
As an appetiser, there will be no Southern or Thameslink train service to London bridge from December 20 – January 4. Some Southeastern morning peak services to Charing Cross will not stop at London Bridge during this time.
Then,from 12 January 2015 to August 2016, all Southeastern services to and from Charing Cross will not call at London Bridge. That means Southeastern services from New Cross, St Johns, Deptford, Greenwich, Maze Hill and Westcombe Park stations will no longer operate to and from London Charing Cross or Waterloo East, and will instead operate to and from London Cannon Street.
The Standard reports that 750,000 journeys will be affected every day and notes that "Southeastern says it aims to make up for lost London Bridge services with longer suburban trains and 3,000 additional seats in the peak."
Full details of the changes and travel advice can be found here.
This will be fun. TfL issues this advice for people travelling from Brockley station:
From Saturday 23 until Sunday 31 August, services at London Bridge mainline rail station will be affected while engineering work is carried out by Network Rail. This is part of the Thameslink Programme to increase capacity and improve connections. London Bridge Tube station will not be affected.
If you normally use Brockley station, please note the following for this 9 day period:
• London Overground weekday services between Sydenham and Canada Water are expected to be busier than usual for the time of year, with crowding and queuing on platforms, especially during the morning and evening peaks. This is as a result of National Rail customers using this route while their services are not running
• An enhanced London Overground service will operate between Crystal Palace and Canada Water during the morning and evening peaks to help meet increased demand
London Bridge station will be closed to Brockley trains for nine days in August. TfL writes:
From Saturday 23 until Sunday 31 August there will be engineering work at London Bridge National Rail station. This is while Network Rail rebuild the station as part of the Thameslink Programme to increase capacity and improve connections. The Tube station will not be affected.
London Overground, Southern and First Capital Connect customers will be affected by service changes during this nine day period.
An enhanced London Overground service will operate between Crystal Palace and Canada Water during the morning and evening peaks to meet increased demand.
Weekday services between Brockley and Canada Water are expected to be busier than usual for this time of year, especially in the morning peak. For more information about the Thameslink Programme, please click here.
London Bridge - Brockley's most important direct connection - is emerging as one of London's leading media industry hubs. City AM reports:
Booming demand from the media industry is set to double take-up of office space along London’s Southbank this year, according to new research from estate agent Knight Frank.
Nearly 700,000 square feet (sq ft) of office space has been acquired on the Southbank in 2013 so far. Major leasing deals this year include News Corp, which owns Dow Jones, Harper Collins and News UK (full disclosure, a client of Edelman), and broadcaster Al Jazeera (full disclosure: also a client), which rents premises in The Shard.
A further 439,000 sq ft of deals are in advanced negotiations, meaning that full-year take-up should exceed 1.1m sq ft.
With IPC and others up the road at the Blue Fin building and several media and marketing firms based in More London and Bermondsey Square, London Bridge is vying with Victoria, Kings Cross and Tottenham Court Road / Soho as the city's leading media cluster. Which is handy for the 50% of BC readers who work in the sector.
Earlier this week, Building also reported that:
Engineer WSP has been drafted in by the Shard developer Sellar to work with architect Renzo Piano on designs for two further, smaller towers in the London Bridge Quarter. The towers will house flats and be built on the site of Fielden House, by the Shard and the Place, which currently houses ground floor bars with offices above, including a Sellar office.
A campaign has been launched by a group called the Greenwich Line Users to prevent major cuts to South Eastern train services.
As discussed on the South East London transport forum, the planned three-year disruption of services from South East London through London Bridge is due to begin in 2015:
- 2015/6 Charing Cross services will not stop at London Bridge
- 2016/8 Cannon Street services will not stop at London Bridge
These changes are the a result of Thameslink construction work to expand and modernise London Bridge station. Once work is completed in 2018, the London Bridge serviceswill resume, but Greenwich and Deptford will have lost direct services to Charing Cross or Waterloo East. The group explains:
Once the work is complete there will be no physical track connection that will enable trains to reach Charing Cross. So, after 150 years, the West End will no longer be reached by direct trains.
The Greenwich Line Users’ Group has been formed to represent the interests of all passengers who use the Greenwich Line. Whilst we recognise that the work at London Bridge will bring about many improvements for passengers generally, it will disadvantage users of the Greenwich Line. Our objective is to remove that disadvantage. Insufficient thought has been given by the Department for Transport to the impact on the Greenwich Line and the possible ways in which direct Charing Cross services could be maintained.
Cannon Street is a fine station for the City, but hopeless for getting to and from the West End.
The Group will be lobbying the Department for Transport, Network Rail and Southeastern trains for a service that meets the needs of South East Londoners.
The Users’ Group can be contacted at greenwichline@outlook.com. We will be happy to receive your comments or questions.
The cancellation of Brockley's infrequent direct connections to Charing X some years ago was a relatively minor inconvenience, but Greenwich and Deptford's West End services are much more frequent and would be a consequently greater loss.
The Thameslink project website has been updated, to provide a timetable of works at London Bridge Station and the impact on services between next May 2013 and its final completion in 2018. The station will be stunning, but the service disruption should keep Twitter busy for most of the rest of the decade.
We're grateful to Michael on South East Central, who points out that Network Rail are planning to prevent trains to and from Charing Cross, Waterloo East and Cannon Street from stopping at London Bridge during the final years of the Thameslink construction programme.
The Network Rail timetable from here on in looks like this:
In real life, it is the hare who wins. Every time. Look around you. And in any case it is my contention that Aesop was writing for the tortoise market. Hares have no time to read. They are too busy winning the game.
- Anita Brookner
This morning's March sunshine meant Brockley Central's tail was up as we set off for work. We know it technically isn't the first day of spring, but we'll be blowed if we're going to wait until the Vernal Equinox to celebrate the end of winter. Spring's borders march in lockstep with Brockley's.
So, as a little treat, we allowed ourselves to take the sunnier, slower route to work, via London Bridge. We've been to London Bridge plenty of times since work on the new station began, but never in the sunshine. The new section was lit up like a light box as we walked towards it. Even half-built, the effect of the new, open platforms and glass roof is already glorious.
When the station and surrounding works are finished, this most-important of gateways to the south will no longer serve as a warning to cautious Londoners not to venture any further from north, it will seduce them with whispers of exotica like Herne Hill, Anerley and of course, Brockley.
And down in Bermondsey — good grief, south of the river! — Jay Jopling’s White Cube brand is finishing its biggest and boldest venture yet, a stonkingly huge gallery. This is upmarket art on an industrial scale.
- Hugh Pearman, The Sunday Times, October 9th, 2011
On Wednesday, a new White Cube gallery is due to open on Bermondsey Street, becoming the largest commercial gallery in London and ensuring acres of coverage about the rise of Bermondsey as a newly-hip neighbourhood.
Jopling didn't get to sell $100m diamond skulls by being slow to spot an up-and-coming area and the chance to establish a presence only '8 minutes from Brockley' at London Bridge must have been irresistible, with the proximity of the Shard and Tate Modern presumably an added bonus. London's centre of cultural and economic gravity continues to inch towards SE4.
Guys Hospital, one of South East London's most prominent buildings, is to receive a reclad according to SE1.
The brutalist concrete tower is a key feature of central London views from this area's various hill-top parks and sits in stark contrast to the rapidly growing form of its neighbour, the Shard.
The work, approved by Southwark Council last week, will involve cladding it with anodysed aluminium to improve the building's energy efficiency and prevent deterioration of the concrete.
Whether it will improve its aesthetics is hard to tell based on the accompanying render. Unlike some previous concepts, the cladding will do little to disguise its awkward form and the new lighting feature on top may make it look even more like it's been built by a toddler stacking bricks in the order they came out of the box. Still, it can't get any worse, so bring it on.
Well done to SE1 for getting the first images of the new London Bridge Station. While not as funkily futuristic as the spiraling ziggurat of the previous design, which included an office complex, we like this one a lot, especially the street level access at Tooley Street.
