King’s Cross Media Space

Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief

This week saw the biggest transformation in the 160 year history of King’s Cross station in London, with the opening to the public of the spectacular new western concourse.

A newly installed media space has now gone live, providing passengers and advertisers with state-of-art digital poster sites designed into the fabric of the station.

The shell-shaped glass and steel building will provide three times the space of the current station concourse with better facilities, more shops and restaurants and new links to St Pancras station and the tube.

JCDecaux worked in partnership with Network Rail, English Heritage and the station architects to plan in media space that is sympathetic to the station’s heritage yet delivers advertising space for 21st century audiences.

Steven Wood, Advertising Manager, Network Rail said, “Network Rail’s partnership with JCDecaux has delivered the first stage of the advertising enhancement at London King’s Cross, which I am confident will be a great success.  This will generate an improved revenue stream for us to invest straight back into the railway for the benefit of our customers.”

The digital media space in the Western Concourse comprises…

  • two state-of-the-art HD Transvision screens positioned either side of the departure boards that will run concurrent creative
  • 4 x digital 6-sheets
  • (It will eventually also include 20 digital escalator panels reaching audiences travelling between the tube and the station concourse)
  • There are a further 5 wall-mounted static 6-sheets

King’s Cross is the first station to benefit from recessed digital 6-sheets, with two poster sites designed to fit seamlessly into the fabric of the building.

A further two 6-sheets will be free-standing in the centre of concourse with the reverse side providing wayfinding information for passengers.

Network Rail itself is among the launch advertisers on the new digital portfolio at King’s Cross running a branding campaign to keep passengers informed about the changes at the station.

More than 45 million passengers a year, travelling through London and to and from destinations as far afield as Newcastle, Edinburgh and York will benefit from the improvements to the station. The GBP 550m scheme marks the completion of yet another key transport upgrade for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.


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