CASE STUDY THE LOW LINE ARCHES
The Low Line is a newly emerging walking route between London Bridge and Waterloo stations, aimed at revitalising the omnipresent infrastructure of Victorian railway viaducts and their multitudes of arches, and connecting them through the activation of small pockets of urban space in and around them. Backed by £1m from the Mayor’s Good Growth Fund, the Line starts at the well-used pedestrian thoroughfare below the Shard, trailing West along St Thomas Street, through the greenery and historic spaces around Southwark Cathedral and Borough Market – a route that has become well worn since Tate Modern opened further down the Thames in 1999. For the Low Line development partners – Better Bankside, Blue Bermondsey, Borough Market, Team London Bridge, the Arch Company and Southwark Council – the aim is to draw people away from the obvious attractions of the river towards the hinterlands between Southwark Street and Union Street, connecting existing parks and public spaces with new. Begun in 2016, the route is still somewhat invisible to those not in the know. No walking route will feel entirely safe if users are absent, which is where London practice TDO is hoping to make a big difference. They have come up with an appealing and cost-effective demonstration of how to make habitable the 70 arches that remain empty or inaccessible along this stretch, to attract a wide variety of
businesses, start-ups and entrepreneurs to the area. Inspired by the flexibility, ease of construction and robustness of the classic galvanized steel Nissen sheds (invented for temporary shelter and storage during World War Two and still used widely in agriculture), they were drawn to the fact that these sheds can be inserted in a variety of configurations as a form of light touch retrofit that celebrates the existing vaulting brickwork of the arches, and can be adapted, or easily demounted and re-used elsewhere, as needs evolve. They have completed two fit-outs, at Ewer Street and Redcross Way, offering flexible work space, community space, a cycle hub and sustainable support services for local businesses (a cycle courier service) and an operations base for cleaning and waste recycling.
Tom Lewith, founding director of TDO says; ‘The unique qualities of railway viaducts and the generous volumes of the arches underneath have fascinated us since the early days of TDO when we converted a vacant arch in Southwark into our studio. Thousands of railway arches are vacant across the country and present a significant retrofit opportunity.’
Client Better Bankside, Team London Bridge, Blue Bermondsey, Southwark Council and The Arch Company
Architects TDO Cost N/A Completion 2022
people meeting who wouldn’t normally talk to each other, on this bridge.’
Tose bridges that become iconic – the ones with the power to strengthen and generate links between communities and viewpoints – have to have a strong identity, informed by their context. Certainly, this is especially true of Te Gateshead Millennium Bridge, set within a city of multiple bridges, of rail, road and pedestrian varieties, all constructed in the last 200 years: Stephenson’s high level railway bridge, Armstrong’s
swing bridge, Mott Hay Anderson’s bridge, described by aforementioned bridge- afficionado Melvin as a ‘dry run for Sydney Harbour’. Referring to Wilkinson Eyre’s structure, Melvin says: ‘Te mechanism of vast trunion bearings and hydraulics concealed in either bank is definitely innovative, yet it also seems to embed traces of the arch of the Tyne Bridge, the opening of the Swing Bridge, and the vantage point of the high level bridge. And when it opens, in a movement as graceful as an
accelerated film of an unfolding flower, it appears to bow to its venerable neighbours.’ Indeed it does.
With the right amount of creativity, ingenuity and attention to context, infrastructure can enhance both movement through and around a place, as well as its sense of self. Te case studies assembled here bear witness to that potential, including tunnels, archways and stations. Maybe that headline should be changed to: Infrastructure SHOULD be beautiful.
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