Dalston Junction grew out of opportunities presented by complex circumstances. In the 1860s, the arrival of a rail line saw a giant cutting dug through the heart of an East London neighbourhood, erasing existing street patterns, creating a 200-metre-long barrier between the busy Kingsland Road and residential areas to the east, and leaving pockets of urban space unused for more than a century. When the Victorian rail route was incorporated into a new East London Line, this tear in the fabric of the city could be mended – literally and symbolically – by a project combining an intermodal interchange with 310 homes in an over-station development.
Client: Barrett East London
Dates: 2004—2008
Architect:
John McAslan + Partners
Consultants
AKT II
Barratt East London
Dialogue
Goddard Manton
Whitecode Design
General Contractor:
Barratt
Urban repair
In a major piece of civil engineering, the cutting was bridged with a reinforced-concrete deck covering almost 0.8 hectares. It accommodates the new Dalston Junction Overground station, and provides the foundation for housing, shops and public spaces above.
The first priority of the masterplan was to establish clear and well-defined routes to and through the previously impermeable site. The adjacent Rosebery Place was rerouted to emulate nineteenth-century street patterns and create a new public square at the northern end of the site, flanked by apartment buildings. John McAslan + Partners designed the western range, directly over the cutting, and facing similarly scaled residential buildings designed by Arup Associates to the east.
The western range was deliberately broken down into a composition of four smaller building clusters to avoid a large, monolithic volume. Splitting these clusters into two groups allowed an east-west cross-route through the middle of the development. In both groups, the blocks are stepped in height, reflecting the varied townscape – evident as they form the backdrop to low-rise buildings on Kingsland Road to the west – as well as the technical constraints of building over operational rail infrastructure. The scale of the four blocks is also directly related to the loading conditions available beneath, which vary across the site. The lowest, at seven storeys, sit above the station and near to Georgian and Victorian neighbours on Dalston Lane. A freestanding tower in the middle of the row rises to 19 storeys, forming a marker for the new urban space.
Each cluster is linked by recessed bridges that introduce light and visual permeability to the circulation areas. Composition of the facades adds a finer texture: living rooms all face east or west, set behind deep balconies framed by crisp panels of white precast concrete; flank elevations are clad in battens of cumaru, a tough reddish-brown hardwood. A band of dark engineering brick blends the visible edges of the station podium with the base of the buildings, where commercial units make an active edge to the square.
Housing and the city
The station concourse sits directly below this raised ground plane, connected to street level by a sequence of stairs, lifts and escalators. Rail, bus and pedestrian networks are integrated in one legible interchange, enabling easy movement between transport modes. Structural and acoustic engineering solutions – including large-diameter piles and vibration-isolating pads – allow the residential buildings to rest above tracks without disturbance.
Shops and cafés line the landscaped public square, which also hosts markets, events and children’s play. By combining infrastructure, housing and public space within one cohesive piece of city-making, Dalston Junction has turned a century-old barrier into a point of convergence for shoppers, residents and commuters. The project has helped redefine a neighbourhood – catalysing wider regeneration – and created a civic space that supports daily life as much as it serves mobility. High density housing with careful choreography at the human scale gives the new place a distinctive character: lively, layered and inclusive.
