RIBA Regional Awards 2014: London
Thameslink Programme – Borough Viaduct, Southwark
Jestico + Whiles for Network Rail
GIA 8,500m2
It’s not the individual architectural elements that matter here, said the judges. It’s the overall achievement of managing to drive a 400m long new railway viaduct, vital to the Thameslink route, ‘right through the heart of a much loved historic London market without killing it.’ There was fierce opposition and it took a long time and colossal ingenuity. But the end result shows that this trickiest of tasks has succeeded to the extent that, they say, someone teleported from 2006 would hardly notice the difference. That’s hardly the case, but this is conservation with intent.
