Glazing firm on track to restore rail station (From This Is Wiltshire)

DEVIZES firm Wrightstyle has won a contract to recreate the facade of Kings Cross Station in London as part of a £550 million refurbishment project.
The company, based on the Banda trading estate in Nursteed Road, is one of Europe’s leading steel glazing firms, and the £450,000 contract is to make the steel frames for the huge windows in the arches of the new facade, which will echo the terminal’s Victorian origins.
Jane Embury of Wrightstyle said: “Architects love having huge expanses of glass in their projects but they have to be fireproof and secure. Steel is more fireproof than aluminium and that’s where our expertise comes in.
“It is really great that a small Devizes firm is playing such an important role in a nationally significant project.”
It is not the first time Wrightstyle has been called in to take part in the iconic project.
Last year they carried out work on the frontage facing the goods yards worth £2000,000 and they have just won another contract on another part of the building for £110,000.
All the work is being carried out by the workforce of 13, bringing in one or two welders and fabricators on a freelance basis to lend a hand.
Work has begun on the facade contract and Wrightstyle workers will be fitting the new frames over the next two to three months.
Lee Coates, Wrightstyle’s technical director, said: “This new contract for Network Rail was particularly challenging. Not only did we have work in compliance with the strict requirements of English Heritage because of the station’s Grade I listed status, but we had to design our systems to cope with very high traffic volumes.”
The station was designed in 1852 but its elegant frontage was covered over in the 1970s by a much-unloved – and supposedly temporary – green canopy. Bringing the station back to its former glory, and unveiling its original Lewis Cubitt-designed façade for the first time in 150 years, is the largest redevelopment in the station’s history.