Today (Thursday 16 October), Network Rail and others from government and the railway industry launched the railway’s first national clock design for over fifty years, unveiling a 1.8-metre timepiece at London Bridge station.
Design Bridge and Partners created the London timepiece and won the international design competition run by Network Rail, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and the Design Museum, against more than one hundred rival designs.
The RIBA Design Competition kicked off in April 2023, inviting anonymous design proposals. Judges selected five entries for further development and then chose the winner.
Network Rail and RIBA have previously run competitions for other aspects of railway design. After its redevelopment, London Bridge station won RIBA’s prestigious Building of the Year award in 2019.
The winning design works as a physical and digital clock, is easily read, and reflects the design and brand history of the railway.
The design has been created as a large physical clock at London Bridge station, and will also appear in digital form on departure boards across the railway network. This is being launched at several other Network Rail-managed stations today, including London stations Waterloo, Victoria and Charing Cross.
Rail Clock’s designers took advice from accessibility experts and used easy-to-read numbers, which are in an amended version of the railway’s own typeface, Rail Alphabet 2. The railway’s ‘double arrow’ logo splits and travels around the rim of the clock every minute. The creators of Rail Alphabet and the double arrow logo were also consulted during the creation of the clock.
Rail Clock can be adapted for any digital format, including phones and smart watches. Within a few months, it will be made available to the public as a watch face via Android app stores.
London Bridge station was chosen as the location for the physical clock because in 1852, it became home to the second (after Lewisham) electrically-controlled railway clock in the world, installed in 1852, which was linked to a master clock at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.
The last national clock design was created as part of British Rail’s 1974 design manual. Since the railway was privatised in 1996, operators and stations have used clocks of many different designs. The return to a national design marks the gradual reintegration of the country’s railways as passenger operators are brought back into public ownership.
“Two hundred years after the first railway opened in Britain, we’re about to embark on a new journey as a railway, putting passengers first. Part of that journey will be giving everyone the same positive experience across all parts of the network, and design is central to that.
“A clock is the first thing people look for when they arrive at a station. The railway is driven by time, being ‘on time’ is our promise to passengers, and clocks have always provided landmarks for people to meet at and use to navigate their way around stations. This design provides a proud and eye-catching centrepiece and acts as a brilliant reminder of the new journey we’re about to undertake together.”
Anthony Dewar, Network Rail
Responses
This new clock is digital only and I guess that is a nod to younger generations who apparently are unable to read analogue clocks.
Analogue clocks have the advantage (if you can read them) of enabling you to check the time at a glance from the position of the hands.
They also avoid the issue some people have with digital, where they mistakenly subtract 10 from digital times post midday instead of 12. So 17.30 becomes 7.30pm for example, instead of the correct 5.30pm.
It does look very nice and so futuristic.
Really, how smart is that ? Has no “Second” hand. Failed to take note of the Swiss where when the second hand is at “12” the doors shut and off you go .. A country where the trains leave in time (not early or late) and run in time .
The arrows move around the clock face – one circuit per minute. So that’s your second hand!
Personally, I’d prefer an analogue clock. However, situating it at London Bridge station probably doesn’t matter as the station, at platform level, has been ruined anyway with the rather childish glass shard nonsense.