The UK’s busiest train station is getting a £1.5bn revamp despite complaints from preservation groups.
Liverpool Street Station in London serves around 135 million passengers each year, taking first place for the UK’s busiest stations.
Network Rail has decided to give it a makeover costing a huge £1.5billion with the redevelopment is set to turn the station into a “new landmark destination”
Plans include removing the original roof and entrance to construct a 20-storey hotel and office block above the station, which will fund the revamp.
The renovations will also increase the size of the concourse and the number of ticket barriers, create step-free access across the station and Underground with lifts and escalators, and add toilets, cycle storage and shops.
While construction on the station has yet to break ground, Sellar Property Group, Mass Transit Railway (MTR) and Network Rail argue the plans would relieve congestion and enhance the passenger experience.
Robin Dobson, group property director, at Network Rail, said the station already needs around £450million of improvements, which the revamp will cover. “The station is regularly closed from a health and safety, overcrowding, chaos perspective,” he says.
Preservation groups hit back at the initial plans, concerned it would threaten views from the neighbouring St Paul Cathedral and alter the historic landmark.
Connor McNeill, conservation advisor for the Victorian Society, said: “I have never seen anything as harmful as this proposed. What we are really concerned about is what precedent is it going to set in any urban setting where land is at a premium?
“It is a beautiful light-filled station, cathedral-like with its aisles and transepts, and the hotel has stunning interiors. It is such an oasis of 19th century history in a part of the city where you have got all these towers going up. It will just become another part of the city which has been redeveloped.”
National Rail Property has, this week, launched a consultation on the plans for passengers, local businesses, heritage groups and elected representatives to give their feedback on the plans.
