The Battle For Liverpool St Station

Griff Rhys Jones, President of the Victorian Society, has written this update on the revised yet equally misguided proposals for Liverpool St Station

Visualisation courtesy of ACME

After a positive roar of protest, with over two thousand unsolicited objections to the last scheme, Herzog & de Meuron and the original get-rich-quick developers, Sellar, and their wrap-around scheme, appear to have taken a train out. But Network Rail have come back furiously, deceptively and determinedly. They have appointed new architects, ACME. They are back with new proposals, as unrepentant as ever.

Look at these very carefully. The exact plans have not yet been revealed but these visualisations are hugely misleading. The angle of vision is of a three-foot tall squirrel wearing wide-angle glasses. It would seem that the former Great Eastern Hotel will dwarf the proposed office block. Not so, these newly planned structures would tower ninety metres over the Conservation Area. You will not get this from the architect’s pictures because they are apparently going to be constructed of gossamer. So light and virtually invisible that you will have to squint at these ‘imagineerings’ to even see them against the sky.

Yet this is pulled wool for disbelieving eyes.

The proposed new towers above the station, even swathed in a boa of fashionable greensward, are still there.

LISSCA (the campaign to Save Liverpool St Station) has taken time to unravel exactly what is proposed. It appears the developers are still building directly on top of the listed station concourse and now demolishing and expanding much of the area below too, adding shops to the engine sheds. They are still radically altering the majority of protected views in the Conservation Area. The money to be made from offices and retail is – most emphatically – still the driving force behind this development.

I fear the developers’ ‘improvements to the concourse’ PR spin is a deliberate blind. It is a snow job. It is a distraction. It ignores the White Elephant in the room.

Recently Network Rail staged a hurried ‘consultation’ to outline what they offer the man on the Ilford five-thirty.

If you were asked this sort of question…

‘Do you think disabled access should be improved at this station?’

or…

‘Do you want step-free access?’

or…

‘Would you like more room on the concourse?’

or…

‘Would you like to ascend to heaven in a phaeton accompanied by angels tootling trumpets?’

You would probably answer ‘yes’.

Network Rail claim 250,000 people ‘interacted’ with their consultation but they can only muster 1,800 actual people who approve. In other words, the vast majority saw this for what it was – a one way ticket to the moon.

Many of those consulted have complained that their own negative comments and criticisms have been ignored, not accepted or presented. There was a question – for example – that asked ‘Wouldn’t you like a greater selection of cafes and shopping experiences?’ – to which the answer was a generally straightforward ‘No’. But Network Rail did not include that in their gushing self-congratulation. They are eager to push on and seem to be in a terrible hurry. To wrong-foot any further protest one must suppose.

In truth, more retail space is towards the real centre of their proposal while the unnecessary office space is at the very heart.

How can I say it is unnecessary? Surely, I must be aware that the City needs to grow because the Corporation says so. In fact, the Corporation has already given its blessing to fourteen new office skyscrapers, even though only eleven have proved possible. Developers balked at the commercial viability of the others. The Corporation has produced a fanciful projection of millions of square feet of new demand. They foresee a decade of more massive City of London growth. Really?

Here at Liverpool St we see the end result. The assertion that London needs to sacrifice its precious heritage by building on top of it – in order to achieve this specious intent – is wholly preposterous, yet this what is being proposed.

Walk around the existing concourse. Please. It is easy to do. It is very rarely crammed, malfunctioning and unfit for purpose – even in the rush hour. (As the PR people repeatedly claim.)

Many of the required ‘improvements’ are undoubtedly possible without any significant alterations. There is – for example – already a disabled lift but the constant complaint recorded on TripAdvisor is that that it is never working. It does not require a couple of billion quid to ensure proper maintenance.

There should also – surely – be step-free access from the new building in Broadgate? That should have been part of any deal for the overbearing re-development to the west. Why has it not been achieved?

Take a look at the elaborate and rather lovely bargeboards at the back of the train shed. Get some paint out Network Rail. They are rotting away.

Network Rail have a statutory duty to make the station work and address these failures. They do not have a statutory duty to trash heritage. They do not have a statutory duty to be avaricious property developers and build office blocks on top of stations. Yet they have already done so at London Bridge with the Shard and now they think they can do the same at Liverpool St. Horrifically, they have announced plans and greedy ambitions to do the same at Victoria and Waterloo.

I use Liverpool St Station regularly. It is my station. I do not recognise the claims that it is – as ‘the busiest station’ in London – in urgent need of radical reformation. I do not find it at all crowded and impractical, and I often use it at rush hour. I simply do not recognise Network Rail’s claims of inherent pandemonium.

The proposed massive office development at Liverpool St is not at all necessary to the community, to heritage, to the railway system or to London. We must assemble the troops and continue stating our case. This is not about the past this is about the future. Our great-grandchildren will not applaud us for permitting a totally out-of-character cankerous growth to sprout on top of a noble Victorian station.

St Pancras and Kings Cross stations demonstrate how wonderful and historically important it is to strip away later ‘improvements’ to reveal the splendours of the railway age. This is good practice. The Liverpool St proposal is bad practice, obviously.

Take a really good look at this proposal. We need to register our discontent even more forcefully. We have not had a proper response to the legitimate objections already aired. Our case still stands.

Visualisation courtesy of ACME

ACME’s proposal for the entrance from Bishopsgate with a tower block on top

Visualisation courtesy of ACME

The foot of the tower block viewed looking east along Liverpool St

Visualisation courtesy of ACME

The foot of the tower block looking west along Liverpool St

If you have not done so already, please sign the Save Liverpool St Station petition, and share it with your friends, family, colleagues and networks.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION

Support our crowdfund, so we can take the legal fight all the way to the Secretary of State and halt these destructive plans.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO THE CROWDFUND

When the new planning application is submitted – probably in January 2025 – please be ready to write a letter of objection. We will alert everyone who signs the petition when the application is live.