Phill Price was there just before the re-opening and kindly sent the link to his Flickr stream of photos. He said "This is a one off burst of photos to show the exterior in all its glory in the wet evening of October 4th. It's warming on me already and I'm looking forward to using it again!"
It's all in readiness for the new Westfield Shopping Centre development which will open later this month.
All in all the Tube station's ticket hall has been remodelled with new escalators connecting to the refurbished platforms below. Sadly for some (including me) the distinctive dark green tiles have been replaced with more conventional white ones. Additional ticket gates were installed to handle the estimated 45,000 passengers a day, when the shopping centre opens. You can see from Phill's pictures, that above-ground the station is all modern & 21st century looking. It's right next to the new Shepherd's Bush Overground station, which opened last week.
Members of the London Assembly & local shopkeepers had questioned the need for a total closure of the station, as the escalators still had a number of years life in them. However, TfL felt that the temporary full shutdown meant the scheduled escalator work could be completed early with the rebuilding of the station. Ultimately, Transport for London argued this would mean less disruption rather than waiting for a few more years once the shopping centre was up & running & even more people would have been using the station.
Anyway, nice atmospheric photos from Phill and it will be great to hear what you think of the new station & whether it's growing on you too.
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