OPDC team members supported High Speed Two (HS2) at a series of engagement workshops to reveal and discuss the Old Oak Common station design. The launch of the station design is an exciting step forward for OPDC in creating a vibrant new quarter of London that will bring jobs, housing and a whole new social infrastructure.
We share our insights
The purpose of the engagement workshops was to encourage residents, public organisations, businesses, charities and voluntary sector organisations to understand the station design objectives and to influence how the public space should be used. Old Oak Common Station is one of four new stations forming Phase One of the high-speed railway from London to Birmingham. It is estimated to attract 250,000 passengers per day and the public space outside will be three times the area of Trafalgar Square in central London.
Visitors approached the events with excitement and anticipation to view the architectural model of the station. The design of the station exemplifies modernism with a wide roof replicating the expanse of stork wings to enhance the inner concourse of the station and to connect the HS2 Station with the new Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) terminus. The roof will provide an opportunity to harness solar energy through photo voltaic panels, rainwater harvesting, and natural ventilation.
HS2 are relying on three main design principles that will bring a holistic harmony:
- People – design for everyone to benefit and enjoy incorporating passengers, employees at the station and the wider community
- Place – design for a sense of place, allowing opportunities to celebrate transport heritage and provide high quality connectivity
- Time – design to stand the test of time.
The architectural model for the Old Oak and Park Royal area was in attendance to provide geographical context and demonstrate how the station will form a mega transportation hub for 25,500 new homes and a new commercial centre. Local people were intrigued about the changes specifically in relation to the Grand Union Canal, Wormwood Scrubs and Park Royal industrial estate. They asked questions about traffic congestion and increases in energy consumption.
The name Old Oak derives from the twelfth century Anglo-Saxon Parish of Acton meaning 'oak town'. The area was densely wooded until the seventeenth century when most of the wooded area was cleared for agricultural purposes. In the late nineteenth century farms in Old Oak Lane were well known for their piggeries probably using Old Oak common for grazing.
In terms of railway history, the famous ‘Flying Dutchman’ train of the ‘Iron Duke’ locomotive class passed through Old Oak Common. The train was named after the famous race horse which won the Epsom Derby and Doncaster St Leger in 1849. The steam locomotives were extremely fast and had an estimated top speed of 133kph or 80mph. The Flying Dutchman, Paddington to Penzance express was the fastest train in the world at the time operating from the 1840s until 1892. In comparison the HS2 trains in 2026 will reach average speeds of 320kph or 200mph from London to Birmingham.
In 2019 few residents live in the OPDC area straddling the London Boroughs of Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham and Brent. Most of the residents are clustered around an area called the Island Triangle.
If time and human life expectancy had no barriers one could just imagine a pig farmer herding his pigs at the end of the day only to meet a Victorian train driver chopping oak wood to feed his locomotive engine on his way to Penzance, in Cornwall. Yet, both would take cover under an ancient oak tree to protect themselves from an instantaneous blast of wind, not of nature’s choice but caused from an HS2 train hurtling up to Birmingham at 200mph, ratting the acorns to the forest floor!