West Hampstead’s London Overground station has — rather later than originally expected — completed a major upgrade. The new entrance hall and overbridge opened in stages over the past year, but they’ve now completed the widening work on the platforms to cope with the rush-hour crowds that build up here.

The upgrade also replaced the narrow old staircases with much wider stairs, and lifts to both platforms. The number of ticket barriers also doubled to 10 in total compared to the old entrance.

Rory O’Neill, TfL’s General Manager for London Overground, said: “The station improvements at West Hampstead, including step-free access, will make travelling through the new station an even better experience for everyone.”

The station had been expected to be completed about a year ago, but delays kept pushing that back, and while the overbridge opened last year, the new entrance itself only opened in August.

Some of the funding for the redevelopment comes from Ballymore, who are building just under 200 homes next to the station in a series of low-rise blocks of flats.

The existing Edwardian era station building will be later removed, and is due to be turned into a “retail opportunity”, although problems with the road bridge it sits on may cause those plans to change.