Sudbury Hill Tube Station Goes Step-Free With New Lifts

Sudbury Hill Underground Station, on the Piccadilly Line, has become the latest tube station to go step-free, following the construction of passenger lifts to platforms.

Intelligent Transport reports that the completion of the work at the station means that the total number of step-free stations on London’s Underground network now stands at 90. As well as new lifts, Sudbury Hill station will continue to include boarding ramps, as well as tactile paving along the full length of both platforms.

Although opened in 1903 as part of the District line, the station building was rebuilt less than 20 years later to a design by Charles Holden when it was taken over by the Picadilly line in 1932. The ticket hall is now Grade II listed.

So that the lifts could be fitted into the station, it was necessary to make several changes to the Grade II-listed ticket hall.

Initial plans had hoped to place the lift to Platform 2 inside the ticket hall. But columns underneath the hall were in the way, while plans to include the lifts into the existing concrete footbridge had to be abandoned after the condition of the footbridge meant adapting it wasn’t viable.

Instead, two free-standing brick-clad lift shafts have been built, with one from the ticket hall down to the nearest platform, and another shaft at the other end of the footbridge, linked by a new connection.

To create space for the lift entrance inside the ticket hall down to Platform 2, the ticket office and staff room, added to the hall in the 1980s, were demolished and facilities moved to other rooms available in the hall.

Bricks consistent with the rest of the building were used to construct the new lift shafts and a new window was specified to match the style of the existing ones.

If you’re looking for passenger lift companies, then talk to us today.