| Summary : Westminster underground station opened on 24th December 1868 when it was known as Westminster Bridge. Renamed Westminster in 1907, the station was sited on the first part of the District Railway running between Gloucester Road and Westminster Bridge. Charles Holden's first commissioned Underground work was to rebuild the side (riverside) entrance of Westminster station. This small work, completed in 1924, so pleased Frank Pick that Holden was given work for further remodelling of Underground stations. On 22nd December 1999 Westminster opened as an intermediate station on the new Jubilee line extension from Green Park to Stratford. It is the deepest station on the extension at 32 metres and lies below Michael Hopkins's and Partners new Parliamentary building, Portcullis House. The station was the most complex constructed on the extension as the challenge was to design and build a new station and foundations for the new Parliamentary building while keeping the District and Circle lines operational. To create the new station, the old Victorian Westminster station and the buildings around it were completely demolished. A bridge was constructed 15m below ground to support the District and Circle line platform and tracks and excavation began below this. Constructed within a confined site, the station box is 75m long by 27m wide, formed by a diaphragm wall extending down to 40m below the existing lines, which creates the open-plan escalator well. This contains solid steel struts - spanning 21m between buttresses and highlighting the exposed faces of the diaphragm wall. The station entrance, on Bridge Street, is accessed via subways under Bridge Street and the Embankment. From the hall platforms are reached by five lifts and 17 escalators. |