Two projects at Bath demonstrate our capacity for integrating infrastructure and urban design into the city fabric through long term planning and strategic design.
WilkinsonEyre was first commissioned in 2000 to design a new bus station located on a tight and sensitive site in the centre of Bath, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. A keystone in the development of Bath's new Southgate retail centre, the brief for the bus station anticipated a wider interchange project encompassing Brunel's Grade II listed Bath Railway Station
First Group hold the franchise for both rail and bus services. The bus station provides 14 echelon stands for local and long distance services, plus seven layover stands, with an enclosed passenger concourse, ticket centre and control building for First Bus. The facilities serve an additional 8 kerbside stands bordering a new public square that forms the centrepiece of the Interchange.
Following the completion of design of the bus interchange, WilkinsonEyre was commissioned to remodel the adjacent railway station which serves the City. We substantially re-modelled this busy point of arrival to rationalise passenger flows and improve the setting of the building. The main interventions were focused on a new Station Plaza between bus and railway stations.
Acting as the key organiser for the interchange, the new civic plaza is flanked by opened up historic arches beneath the railway viaduct, now glazed to provide new retail opportunities at the heart of the interchange. Extensive cycle parking and seating are featured within the square. Alongside the work to the original, listed heritage station a major new restaurant cluster is accommodated at platform level replacing a former car park.
