It will now carry out a feasibility study looking at options to transform the former railway works, which is now a visitor attraction featuring several open signal boxes, a miniature railway and British Rail’s only surviving experimental 1970s APT-P train (pictured).
The search for a design team launched in November, just three months after Crewe Town Council announced it was seeking a consultant for a conservation area review of Crewe, focusing on understanding the Cheshire town’s ‘built heritage, its context, impact and value’.
6a’s win comes just months after the government cancelled the HS2 leg from Birmingham to Manchester, which would have run via Crewe.
The project aims to deliver a new ‘modern heritage leisure attraction’ on the site near to Crewe Station which currently receives around 30,000 visitors a year – celebrating local railway heritage and social history.
The Crewe Heritage Centre was founded in 1987 and currently features three signal boxes and a 1,000m2 exhibition hall which is used for events and exhibitions.
The London practice defeated an undisclosed shortlist to win the estimated £45,000 contract, for Crewe Town Council.
Crewe is a town of around 76,000 inhabitants and historically a major centre of railway manufacturing. It had been earmarked for a major new Grimshaw-designed hub station connecting existing rail services with the north-western spur of HS2.
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