London Waterloo Roof Refurbishment

[Fazaar1889]

London Waterloo: Century-old roof to go glass at capital's busiest station in two year refurb project

The century-old roof of the UK’s busiest railway station is being renovated to create a brighter environment for passengers. Network Rail said it has

www.cityam.com

London Waterloo: Century-old roof to go glass at capital’s busiest station in two year refurb project

 

[pdeaves]

I assume the article's headline should be 'glass-free', given that it's already glass and they will install polycarbonate.

 

[Meerkat]

I thought they replaced it all a few years back or did they just clean it?
Was fantastically bright and nice afterwards but seemed to get dirty again pretty quickly - dunno if thats just London or all the smelly 159s.

 

[Big Jumby 74]

I thought they replaced it all a few years back or did they just clean it?

It was just cleaned, and A number of panes were renewed after that slight windy episode that a certain Met Office news forecaster got a load of stick about. Worked in offices immediately below (2nd floor) and above (3rd floor) the roof prior to it being cleaned refurbished. Most of the grimed on mess was a mixture of steam days soot and brake dust, and yes, it was like a brand new station once the light could get through again.

Edited:

See video uploaded by swt_passenger (thanks by the way). Amazing how one can forget the extent of such works all these years later!

 

[swt_passenger]

I thought they replaced it all a few years back or did they just clean it?
Was fantastically bright and nice afterwards but seemed to get dirty again pretty quickly - dunno if thats just London or all the smelly 159s.

From 2001 onwards it had steelwork repairs, was repainted, and fully reglazed. I think it took much of the decade didn’t it? The media generally describing it as 100 year old is fairly wide of the mark.

There’s a fairly detailed video about the work that took place here:

 

[Big Jumby 74]

I took this in 1990, the view from above the Windsor side end of the concourse, looking towards the main suburban end. To the right, the roof of the train shed over the buffer line has seen a small number of new panes of glass installed.

 

[stuu]

I knew it had been done not all that long ago. 100 years is plain untrue.

Amec raises the roof at Waterloo station A new roof for Waterloo | Construction News

The mammoth task of replacing the station's steel and glass roof will take two years.Amec's first task was put up a temporary roof.Adrian Greeman

www.constructionnews.co.uk

The mammoth task of replacing the station's steel and glass roof will take two years.

THE 180 m-wide span of steel and glass roof covering the length of the 24 platforms at Waterloo station in London is one of the largest train shed roofs in Europe.

But the structure has reached the end of its useful life and needs to be replaced - a job that requires all 24,000 glass panes to be replaced and 675 tonnes of high-level steel trusses to be cleaned and painted, or occasionally replaced. Lighter steel elements are being dismantled and taken away to be galvanised...

 

[yorksrob]

This seems like good news, as wasn't there a plan to bung an office block over it recently !

 

[stuving]

If you look at Network Rail's page about the 2023 refurbishment programme, its introduction includes "replacing the 100-year-old station roof". However, when you get down to the section headed "Repairing London Waterloo’s 100-year-old roof", the text has:

The roof that covers the station concourse was rebuilt just after the First World War in 1922. After more than 100 years of sheltering passengers from the wind and rain, it is time to replace the old glazing.

The work is needed as the existing glazing and support structures needed more intensive and expensive maintenance to stop leaks.

Work will get underway in March 2023 and continue to April 2025 to replace the glazed panels and the support structures which hold them.

How will the station be affected by roof works?

The operation of the station, including passenger services and retail outlets will be unaffected by the work.

A temporary roof structure we will be built underneath the existing roof to protect passengers from the elements. Passengers will see a scaffolding deck that will be moved across the concourse in line with the phasing of works.

Eight temporary staircases will be installed across the station, one on the concourse and seven on the mezzanine. These will be dismantled in sequence as the works progress.

All construction activities relating to the temporary structures and access stairwells will take place at night to prevent noise and dust during normal station operations.

All other works, such as the removal of existing panels and replacement of concourse lights, will be undertaken when the station is open to the public.

So it's the roof of the concourse that's being (more than just) reglazed ths time. Can someone more familiar with Waterloo confirm that the 2001- work on the trainshed roof didn't do the concourse part at all? I can't help feeling NR could have avoided all this confusion if they had just put in something like "the main roof was renovated 20 years ago, and now we are doing the same to the roof above the concourse".

 

[Big Jumby 74]

My image above (post #6) as shown was in 1990, showing the state of the glazing from atop. Here is a view at concourse level from approximately the same sort of position/looking in the same direction. This was four years earlier, 1986, and the glazing appears quite clear / clean by comparison. I took another view the same day in 1986 from the other end of the concourse and again the glazing seems in pretty good condition.

The concourse roof must have been cleaned up sometime later than 1990, although I can not remember when?

 

[XAM2175]

A number of pains were renewed

Hate to be a pain and tell you that in this context the word is "pane"

 

[Big Jumby 74]

Just noticed that. Aged brain.....is becoming a....no, I won't go there

 

[swt_passenger]

If you look at Network Rail's page about the 2023 refurbishment programme, its introduction includes "replacing the 100-year-old station roof". However, when you get down to the section headed "Repairing London Waterloo’s 100-year-old roof", the text has:

So it's the roof of the concourse that's being (more than just) reglazed ths time. Can someone more familiar with Waterloo confirm that the 2001- work on the trainshed roof didn't do the concourse part at all? I can't help feeling NR could have avoided all this confusion if they had just put in something like "the main roof was renovated 20 years ago, and now we are doing the same to the roof above the concourse".

The closing aerial shots of the video I posted yesterday do look as if only the platform roof is new and shiny.

The PR departments always seem to go for a maximum impact statement about the work, no need to be accurate. In fact, it’s probably more likely they’re doing it now because they couldn’t afford it in 2001…

Also, in the video I posted, they ended by saying the finished roof had an expected 80 year life. Would be embarrassing to be doing that again already.

 

[MotCO]

I like the way the article in post #1 links the renewal of the roof with a signal failure!

 

[Tio Terry]

I seem to remember that Chris Green, when he was boss of Network Southeast, had the concourse glazing cleaned and WW2 blackout painting of the glass removed and had the Terrazzo floor laid to replace the tarmac that preceded it. That made the place a much lighter and pleasant place to be.

 

[MotCO]

and had the Terrazzo floor laid to replace the tarmac that preceded it. That made the place a much lighter and pleasant place to be.

Except that the floor is lethal when it rains!

 

[Tio Terry]

Except that the floor is lethal when it rains!

Being under the roof, I suppose the idea was that it wouldn't get seriously wet!

 

[MotCO]

Being under the roof, I suppose the idea was that it wouldn't get seriously wet!

But it was bad enough for my aunt to fall and break her leg. When it's raining, passengers with wet shoes enter the station, and the water just gets added to and spread around.

 

[Big Jumby 74]

and the water just gets added to and spread around.

Quite so. I remember in the early days of that new flooring, having been use to the old tarmac etc, there was a particularly bad patch where there was a lot of cracking/breaking of the new tiles, just to the East of the old cab road (opposite p11 gate) about half way between the barrier line and Casey Jones as it was. How sad I can remember such trivia.....

 

[Tio Terry]

But it was bad enough for my aunt to fall and break her leg. When it's raining, passengers with wet shoes enter the station, and the water just gets added to and spread around.

Wasn't that kind of thing why mats were positioned at the outside entrances so that people would dry their shoes before reaching the Terrazzo?