BERMONDSEY BEACON.

Bermondsey's new Underground station is a synthesis of heroic engineering structures animated by light, topped off by a sleek, transparent box at ground level.

Bermondsey lies just to the east of Tower Bridge on the south side of the Thames. Wharves and warehouses used to line its riverfront, but these are now long disused, some converted into fashionable apartments. Parts of the area have been fitfully regenerated, but it is still a rather dour and deprived London neighbourhood that can only benefit from the transport and economic impetus provided by the recently completed Jubilee Line Extension.

Bermondsey's new Underground station lies on Jamaica Road, a busy east-west artery that snakes along behind the riverfront. Designed by Ian Ritchie Architects, the station emerges from the ground in a gently curved translucent glass structure that rises up towards Jamaica Road. Glazed roof and walls transmit light into the ground floor concourse and down to the platforms below, mitigating the sense of dinginess and claustrophobia so often associated with London's existing tube stations. The glass roof is supported by steel liner beams wrapped to improve acoustic absorption and finished in perforated stainless-steel casings. The gleaming steel catches the sunlight, casting a play of sparkling reflections and shadows into the Stygian, subterranean depths.

Below ground, the station is an engineering hybrid, combining bored platform tunnels and a simple cut-and-cover box. The latter consists of concrete diaphragm walls braced by open horizontal trusses that allow light to percolate down to the lower levels. This arrangement astutely reconciles the depth of the platforms, surface restrictions and planning requirements. Ritchie's inventive integration of architecture and engineering is legibly manifest in a hierarchy of elements: the mass and surface irregularity of the diaphragm container, the sharp horizontal form of the concrete trusses and monolithic qualities of the vertical blade walls that enclose the escalator void. These echo the sleek, hard-edged functionalism of Pick and Holden's original iconic Underground stations. They also express the weight and mass of the station's structure, which is animated and enlivened through the presence of natural light.

Secondary finishes are reduced to a minimum, so that lower levels resemble bald, geological excavations into the earth. Above ground, the treatment of robust metal castings, stainless-steel plate and floor finishes is more refined, to achieve a visible tactile quality in areas of immediate public contact. Different aggregates are incorporated into the concrete to create a variety of textures; some warm grey, others pale and gently scintillating, with a high reflectance designed to transmit light. Enclosed by its ethereal glass envelope (the transparency makes circulation immediately comprehensible), the new station forms a bold civic landmark in a part of London that greatly needs such gestures.