Colindale Tube Station

Buckland were approached to work on the redevelopment project at Colindale Station, working with Transport for London. The station is on the Northern underground line, and the major redevelopment was a key part of increasing long-term capacity at the station.

The brief was for two roofs, one a new ticket hall known as the main roof and the second  for the Northern Canopy stairwell and platform roof.  The main roof is formed by glulam arches, secondary purlins and CLT panels with a curved larch bullnose edge detail, complementing the Northern Canopy made of CLT and larch glulam.

The six main roof glulam arches are 25m long and 1.2 -metres deep. The found internal arches are made from spruce and the two external ones have an internal face of spruce and an external face of larch, sandwiching a bespoke faceted steel RHS. Impressive in themselves but the really challenge was the installation as all the lifting work had to be carried out in three-hour windows between 1.30 and 4.30 am each night, all while keeping noise to a minimum, and on a zero tolerance connection detail!

A standout feature of this project is the bespoke bullnose edge detail created for three sides of the roof. This solid timber piece, curved in all three planes, was crafted using a grid of square laminations with hand-carved gutter details. The mitred corners were successfully aligned during installation, representing the pinnacle of contemporary timber craftsmanship.

This project highlights timber’s advantages over traditional steel and concrete in urban transport environments. Large spans of glulam were central to the structural design, chosen for aesthetics, lower environmental impact, and the ability to achieve 25m single-span arches whilst meeting stringent blast loading requirements.

In total, 110m³ of CLT and 120m³ of glulam were installed, weighing approximately 126 tonnes. The project’s 63.25 tonnes of embodied carbon savings, the equivalent of removing 240 cars from roads annually, directly supports TfL’s net-zero commitments whilst demonstrating timber’s essential role in sustainable infrastructure delivery.

See the Colindale curves being loaded from the factory

See the CLT install