Commuters to Imperial’s South Kensington campus may soon be seeing South Ken. tube station undergo a major revamp and recieve a glassy above ground office, residential and shopping complex.

London Underground have applied to the local council for planning permission to carry out major redevelopment work on South Kensington tube station. The proposed development includes office space, shops and residential flats above the tube station as well as giving the station itself a major facelift.

Improvements to the actual tube station would include a ticket hall at street level that’s larger than the current one and lift and escalator access to all platforms, which would no doubt be welcomed by pushchair and wheelchair users. Better access to buses is also included in the proposals as well as a bicycle parking facilities.

It appears that the landscape of Exhibition road will change considerably over the next few years since the station’s glassy above ground complex, whose rent income is intended to fund the station renovation, would join a couple of other large modern buildings appearing in the near future including of course, Imperial’s own Tanaka project and the V&A museum’s developments. In some ways though, the juxtaposition of this grand glass structure with the surrounding Victorian architecture would be an echo of the station’s original Victorian incarnation, which featured a grand front entrance and large glass roof. These were removed when the Piccadilly line was put in.

It’s not yet known to what extent the development construction works would disrupt the journeys of the 80,000 (average) passengers a day, including Imperial College staff and students, that pass through South Ken station. It is suspected though that a certain amount of inconvenience must be tolerated before the benefits of ‘improved passenger flow arrangements’ as promised in the proposals, are reaped.