Published: 10 November 2011
by DAN CARRIER

IT became known internationally for providing a backdrop in the Harry Potter films – and now, as if by magic, the massive Victorian bridge that spanned the inside of King’s Cross railway station has disappeared.

The Handyside Bridge, weighing 120 tons and spanning 50 metres, has been dismantled, taken away for restoration – and will reappear over a heritage railway line in Hampshire by Christmas.

The removal from the Grade I-listed station represents the next step in a £400million renovation project.

The station now has an extra wing added to it as a departure lounge – and it means the old bridge is no longer fit for purpose.

English Heritage did ask architects McAslan to look at how the bridge could be saved, but with the new layout inside, the station needed a raised walkway that could incorporate escalators and lifts, and, after trying to work out how to incorporate the bridge, the designers realised so little of it would be left in its original state they would do better finding it a new home.

English Heritage London director Paddy Pugh said: “We said to Network Rail that they could have permission to move it on the condition that they had to try and find a new home for it and that they must replace it with a superb bridge that will add to the architectural interest inside the station.”

King’s Cross station, which opened in 1854, had the bridge installed in 1893.

Its maker, the Handyside foundry in Derby, was famous for making ornate gas lamps and post boxes.

They were also asked to build the Albert Bridge across the Thames.

Mr Pugh added: “The station is a bit like a cathedral – everywhere you look there are details that are important.

The bridge is included in this.

“But the most important thing is the station has to be fit for the 21st century.

This means there are changes that will happen.

Losing the bridge is one of those things but it is a nice twist that it will be given a new home, to be looked after by a dedicated railway enthusiasts society.”

The bridge is being moved south to be rebuilt over the Watercress Railway, a line that chugs for 10 miles through Hampshire using original steam trains.

The bridge was taken to pieces bit by bit by engineers and then craned out.

It has been taken on to a work yard in Eastleigh, where it will be shot-blasted to remove 100 years of grime and take away the remnants of a toxic lead-based paint it used to be covered with.

Then it will be taken down to it’s new home in Hampshire.

David Snow, chairman of the Watercress Railway, said: “We had wanted to have a new bridge for some time at our depot.

Ropley is where our workshops are and we realised it was big enough to cross the lines and a yard.”

It will be transported to them in hundreds of individual pieces.

Mr Snow added: “We have got an enormous jigsaw puzzle to do. We have a lot of drawings to use to put it back together again. It will be hard to do – but a lot of fun.”