What were they thinking? Reactions such as that to the plan to cantilever a 20-storey tower block literally over the top of Liverpool Street station and the adjoining former Great Eastern Hotel resonated well beyond those who campaigned against it after it emerged early last year.
The plan, put forward jointly by station owners Network Rail, Shard developers Sellar and Elizabeth Line operators MTR, was massively controversial, attracting more than 2,000 objections alongside scathing criticism from heritage and conservation organisations concerned about its impact on the Victorian terminus and the hotel, both of them listed buildings, as well as on views of St Paul’s.
Network Rail has now bowed to what seemed like the inevitable, dropping Sellar and their architects Herzog & De Meuron and unveiling a new “completely reimagined” plan “focussed on our passengers”. It proposes a larger concourse, more ticket barriers, seven new lifts and four new escalators, improvements to the Tube ticket hall, new “landmark” entrances, and step-free access throughout.
Improvements to the station are certainly overdue. Last updated a quarter of a century ago, it has become the UK’s busiest station. It caters for more than 80 million passengers a year, a number forecast to swell to more than 140 million by 2050.
The big question has always been how these improvements, costed at £450 million when the previous scheme was unveiled, would be paid for. Network Rail property boss Robin Dobson put it bluntly last year. “This is not going to get delivered through public sector funding,” he said. “That’s just a fact.”
Could a new government keener on investment than the previous one now step in? Former Network Rail chair Lord Peter Hendy, who last year argued strongly with objectors to the original scheme that the heritage impact of “building over, and removing less than half of, a 1980s concourse roof,” was outweighed by “£450 million of public benefits provided at no cost to the taxpayer”, is now Labour’s minister for rail.
But the position doesn’t seem to have changed. Dobson confirmed this week that the plan is still that “a new office building on top of the station concourse will generate the money to pay for these improvements”.
At 97 metres high, the office block now proposed will be 11 metres shorter than in the previous scheme, with a stepped roof to protect views of St Paul’s. Most significantly, perhaps, it will be set back from the hotel as well, so as “not to dominate it in the way it did before”. It’s a design which Network Rail says now respects the station’s “unique heritage”, while “embracing London’s mix of the old with the new”.
Will that satisfy the objectors? Time will tell, with consultation on the new plans running until 4 December and a new planning application expected next spring. Last time round, those opposed immediately called on then communities secretary Michael Gove to take the decision out of the hands of the Corporation of London. On the basis of recent evidence, his successor, Angela Rayner, may be less inclined to step in, meaning attention will be focused on the Guildhall.
Planning decisions are always about balance, and no more so than in the Square Mile, where the old and the new are closely juxtaposed. If the objectors are not placated, the Guildhall’s first decision next year is also unlikely to be the end of the story. What is clear, though, is that to do nothing at Liverpool Street is not an option.
OnLondon.co.uk provides unique coverage of the capital’s politics, development and culture. Support it for just £5 a month or £50 a year and get things for your money other people won’t. Details HERE. Follow Charles Wright on X/Twitter. Photo: Network Rail.