Proposals to redevelop Liverpool Street Station will be rejected in the ‘strongest possible terms’ by Historic England, the esteemed heritage body said.
The controversial £1.5 billion plan would see the construction of a huge new high-rise edifice and the partial demolition of the station, which is grade II listed.
It would also involve rebuilding the neighbouring Grade II listed Andaz hotel, which opened as the Great Eastern Hotel in 1884. The development would be capped with a roof garden and swimming pool.
After months of talks, the formal planning application, made by the developer behind the Shard building, was presented to the City of London.
It’s already been fiercely opposed by campaigners including the Victorian Society, but Britain’s premier heritage organisation also said it would formally reject the ‘grossly disproportionate’ plans.
Historic England is preparing a lengthy response but chief executive Duncan Wilson said that the plans were ‘fundamentally misconceived’.
Liverpool Street Station opened in 1875 and is now one of London’s busiest train stations.
An estimated 135 million people passed through it each year before the coronavirus pandemic.
Network Rail, which owns the station, and transport company MTR are partnering with developer Sellar in backing the redevelopment project.
Sellar says its proposals involve more than £1.5 billion of private investment, including £450 million to double the size of the station concourse and add more lifts and escalators.
According to the company, the station ‘suffers from significant overcrowding’ as well as ‘poor pedestrian accessibility and connectivity’.
A Historic England spokesman said the proposed demolition of the station concourse extension, built between 1985 and 1992 would ‘sever the fine 1870s trainshed from the Victorian ensemble that still characterises this special place.
They added that the architectural harmony and heritage significance achieved by the last redevelopment would be destroyed, and the natural light over the concourse lost.
They said that the proposed tall buildings above were of a grossly disproportionate scale and would trample on the station and the former Great Eastern Hotel, which is now listed as Grade II in recognition of its role as an impressive station front and for its lavish interior.
They said that its picturesque silhouette and proper grandeur would be radically compromised by the scale and bluntness of the new structures forced onto and through it.
They said the proposed redevelopment of the station would severely damage the Bishopsgate Conservation Area, to which the group of fine Victorian and Edwardian buildings on Liverpool Street is essential.
Never mind Historic England, modern England should reject that monstrosity, and it’s a slippery slope if they let it happen. How long before every other historic building has an office block plonked on top?
It’s a terrible proposition, driven by money rather than need, and we should be protecting our fabulous historical architecture, but then most of the population in London doesn’t give a damn about the history of the United Kingdom.
Why does this sort of thing only happen in this country? It wouldn’t happen in Paris, Madrid, Rome or any other European city, they treasure their history.
The problem is that developers and planners have no soul or feeling for our history, all they think about is how much money they’re going to make.
Developers know the price of everything and the value of nothing. I’m with heritage preservation every time.
By doing this they run down what makes London great and actually airbrush history and what you’re left with could be any place anywhere and London’s character is destroyed bit by bit. What we should be doing is preserving our historic buildings and saying NO to soulless boxes for profit.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 