The team that lead the New York’s Highline development, turning an old railway line in a public park has won a design competition to do the same along an old railway line in Camden. The design agency, James Corner Field Operations lead the design of the New York original, and will now work with Kentish Town-based vPPR Architects on its Camden baby brother.
(c) James Corner Field Operations
The design jury considered 76 entries and 5 shortlists (including Agence Ter of Paris, Benedetti Architects, Feilden Fowles Architects and We Made That with Hassell) before allocating the successful bid to James Corner Field Operations.
The competition winners have brought together an alliance of applied and creative specialists, including vPPR Architects, London artist Hew Locke, community consultation organisation Street Space and Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf, among others.
Camden Highline CEO, Simon Pitkeathley, said: “Every time we reach another milestone, I find myself thinking that I can’t believe we’ve come so far so quickly. Something that started as a bit of a mad idea is now going to be designed by a team of the finest people we could ever have hoped to work with. I cannot wait to see their ideas unfold and be put into practice.”
First stages of the project will now see the winning design team consult with the local community and stakeholders to create a design plan for the new walkway and advance it through the planning process.
The Camden Highline, at three-quarters of a mile long, will be about half the length of the original New York version, aims to create a 10-minute walking pathway from Camden Gardens to Camley Street just to the north of King’s Cross with the elevated line passing over 8 busy roads. The £35 million project is currently expected to open, in phases, from 2024.
The group behind the project is now fundraising to build the Highline.
Camden Highline Site Visit (c) Camden Highline
I had hoped that these spare lines would have been reinstated in order to provide greater capacity for freight trains which could have been segregated from Overground trains along this section of route.
It’s worth noting that the original plans for building a link between HS1 and HS2 would have used north London line tracks but would have only provided a single track connection at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds and if it was successful would have had to be replaced. That’s why link between HS1 and HS2 has still not been included in plans .
Hopefully a high line will ensure people can’t trespass onto operational railways.
I noticed that the Highline begins near Maiden Lane where there were proposals and indeed passive provision for a new station on North London Line to serve Kings Cross development so perhaps the creation of the Highline might be an opportunity to design in a station and maybe even build it to provide access to the Highline .
Indeed, there was a station on Maiden Lane until 1917. I would think that the main problem with remaking it is the need to time goods trains into the Overground timetable. It’s quite tight as it is, another stop could be problematic to get the synchronization right.
Another issue is that the freight lines here are the outer two of the four so any station would need to have platforms on a island (like Caledonian Road and Barnsbury). The original station was on the north-side tracks.