Passengers at King’s Cross station are now, for the first time in half a century, able to enjoy a station concourse flooded with natural daylight thanks to the ongoing refurbishment of the station’s glass roof.
Designed by Lewis Cubitt and dating from 1852, the station was built on the site of a former smallpox and fever hospital and originally only had 2 platforms.
The six year redevelopment of King’s Cross station, known to millions of Harry Potter fans for its fictional platform 9 3/4 , will see the 270m long Grade 1 listed roof above platforms 1-8 completely refurbished by the end of the year.
Sections of the roof’s ironwork has had to be grit blasted and in places it was found to have 32 layers of paint.
Once complete, 7,500 clear glass panels and over 1,400 photovoltaic panels will have replaced the 1970’s grimy roof panels, which had helped keep passengers in the dark for far too long and help restore King’s Cross back to its iconic status as a station where famous locomotives such as Mallard and Flying Scotsman were once regular visitors.
