Grand Central.

A journey worth making.

With approximately 50 million passenger entries and exits annually, New Street is the UK’s busiest railway station outside of London. It needs to welcome, wow, and work for busy travellers.

Grand day out.

We were challenged with the complex and demanding refurbishment of the former Pallasades shopping centre, which was transformed into the award-winning Grand Central retail centre. The successful integration of a John Lewis anchor store and a generous allocation of small retail outlets into this major transport hub is a game-changer. It has helped to take the station’s purpose from purely functional
to one that provides a destination leisure experience.

A central feature of the structure is the huge ETFE-covered (‘bubble’) atrium where passengers and visitors can access the connecting retail, food and beverage units. Our Lighting Design team crafted a clean and modern lighting solution that discreetly illuminates the space, all for less than 8KW – the approximate power requirement of an electric shower.

Collaboration in action.

The huge scale and complexity of the development was compounded by the station remaining open throughout the build. This meant that exemplary coordination and collaboration was required across our many specialist groups working on the project. We ensured consistent dialogue was maintained between the various designers and construction teams throughout the process – a factor that was key to Grand Central’s successful completion.