Liverpool Street Station Restroom Refurbishment

Taziker was awarded the restroom refurbishment at Liverpool Street Station in London as part of Network Rail’s Anglian Works Delivery Buildings team.

The project included the complete refurbishment of the men’s and ladies toilets at the Station. Liverpool Street Station serves around 64 million passengers every year, and the previous facilities required extensive modernisation.

The Challenge

The restroom facilities for both men and ladies needed completely updating, from removing tiles and sanitaryware to fitting new toilets, vanity units and urinals.

As London’s second busiest station, 30,000 passengers pass through its doors each day, so the logistics of the works needed careful planning.  While the works were taking place, passengers still needed access to toilets, so Taziker had to consider replacement facilities as well as the logistics of movement of people around the station.

Additionally, the works were to take place during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

To prevent overcrowding and facilitate social distancing as directed by the Government, the refurbishment also included the demolition of walls to provide a larger toilet space.

The Solution

Liverpool street station toilets tiling taking place by Taziker to reduce the impact on passengers, temporary restroom facilities were installed at the start of the project.  Taziker paid particular attention to keeping these facilities to the highest level of hygiene.

Prior to Covid-19, Taziker would have brought in toilet blocks with shared wash facilities, but due to the pandemic, it was decided that individual toilet cubicles with individual sinks and hand gel inside would be used. This would enable users to adhere to social distancing guidelines.  Taziker also employed a cleaner throughout the day to maintain cleanliness in between passenger use to mitigate against any transmission of the virus.

Taziker initially planned to close the male and female buildings at separate times, but as passenger numbers were dramatically reduced due to the pandemic, instead both buildings were closed simultaneously.  The outdoor temporary toilets were sufficient to satisfy demand during the works.

The refurbishment included the strip out of the sanitary ware, cubicles, vanity units and urinals, followed by the demolition of a small partition behind the sinks. Taziker also provided deep cleaning to the whole area to ensure it was prepared for the next stages of work. New vents, electrical accessories, and speakers were installed following the final decorations.

Taziker have introduced water saving toilet facilities, flush-less urinals and auto-sensor taps, to reduce the amount of water wasted.  Additionally, both toilet blocks were fitted with lower power, high output, energy-efficient LED lighting as they have a much longer bulb-life and a higher efficacy in comparison to the typical incandescent bulbs.

Liverpool Street Station is flooded daily with hard-working, stressed commuters so Taziker have added the additional feature of speakers playing calming, tranquil nature sounds in each toilet cubicle to help improve the mood of busy passengers.

The Result

Taziker refurbishment of Liverpool street toilets, Taziker successfully delivered the project during a pandemic and were instrumental in ensuring the station remained operational throughout lockdown and kept key workers moving.

By using the lockdown period to their advantage, Taziker was able to deliver the project in a much shorter timeframe than the original programme allowed for.  Total project time was reduced from 15 weeks to 10 weeks. Not only did this allow the project to be completed early, it also substantially lowered costs by saving the client 5 weeks’ worth of construction costs, including manual labour and equipment hire.

The new technologies installed in the restrooms eliminate water wasted from unnecessary flushing and from taps being left on due to human error, which gives the facilities a environmental benefit.  The new technologies also remove the need for human contact due to automatic sensors, dramatically improving the hygiene standards of the facilities.  Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, making these improvements are vital to preventing further spreading by mitigating against the transmission of the virus through human contact in the future.

This scheme strengthens the commitment to the Anglia route and further demonstrates Taziker’s increased service offered through their Building Fabric, and Mechanical and Electrical (M&E) divisions.