Moxon Architects has teamed up with engineering firm Arup to install a bright red bridge across Regent's Canal at King's Cross in London, forming a new route into the Thomas Heatherwick-designed Coal Drops Yard shopping development.
Esperance Bridge is a pedestrian-only crossing, positioned to funnel visitors arriving from King's Cross and St Pancras stations to the south into Heatherwick's refurbishment of the Victorian coal-storage depot, which has suffered from poor footfall since it opened in 2018.
Esperance Bridge creates a more direct route into Coal Drops Yard
The bridge boasts a folded truss form, designed by Moxon Architects and Arup to reference an old railway bridge installed in this exact location in the early 19th century.
The bridge is one of three river crossings that featured in the original masterplan for the Coal Drops Yard shopping complex, which opened in 2018. Three years later, it becomes the last of the trio to be installed. The first was the wide road bridge ? now also pedestrianised ? at the southeast corner of Granary Square, while the second was Somers Town Bridge, a pedestrian crossing heading west towards the Camley Street nature reserve.
The bridge features a folded truss form
Robert Evans, CEO of the King's Cross development, described Esperance Bridge as "one of the final pieces of the public realm jigsaw".
"There was bit of debate internally about whether the third bridge would be required," he told Dezeen, "but ...