One of London’s many disused tube stations could be resurrected. The abandoned York Road station near King’s Cross is going to be part of one of the capital’s many swanky new developments set for the next few years.
York Road tube station closed nearly a century ago in 1932, and was one of the original stations on the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway (the precursor to today’s Piccadilly line). The site has been undeveloped for 30 years and during the big regeneration of King’s Cross, a feasibility study was carried out to look at reopening York Road station.
Unfortunately, the renovated York Road isn’t going to resemble anything close to a train station, and it certainly won’t have anything to do with the navy blue line (which is temporarily closing later this year). It’s going to be redeveloped into a massive new medical research lab.
Sitting at 176-178 York Way, the site next to York Road will get a freshly built 200,000 square foot building, filled with life science research labs. While the station won’t be reopened, its facade will be refurbished and there will be improved pedestrian space in the currently sealed-off areas around the station.
The lab will be built above National Rail and Piccadilly line tunnels, but engineering will allow the weight of the building to be distributed as to not affect the tunnels.
Here’s what the new building could look like.
At the moment, this is all subject to planning permission from Islington Council, so watch this space for updates.
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