A famous railway station is set for a £1.5billion revamp despite complaints from preservation groups who worry it will alter the historic landmark. Liverpool Street Station in London sees millions of passengers come and go, taking first place for the UK’s busiest stations.
Serving around 135 million passengers each year, Network Rail have decided to give it a makeover costing a huge £1.5billion.
The redevelopment plan is set to turn the station into a “new landmark destination”, with plans revealing developers plan to remove the original roof and entrance to construct a 20-storey hotel and office block above the station.
But preservation groups have hit back at the plans, concerned it will threaten views from the neighbouring St Paul Cathedral and alter the historic landmark.
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.
Almost 350 documents detail exactly how the Grade II listed station building has been reimagined by Network Rail working with Sellar, the firm which built The Shard at London Bridge.
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.
Connor McNeill, conservation advisor for the Victorian Society, said: “I have never seen anything as harmful as this proposed … it is really extraordinary. 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 around it … [if the tower is built] … it will just become another part of the city which has been redeveloped recently.”
Historic England have also strongly objected to the plans. A spokesperson said: “The architectural harmony and heritage significance achieved by the last redevelopment would be destroyed, and the natural light over the concourse lost.
“Its picturesque silhouette and proper grandeur would be radically compromised by the scale and bluntness of the new structures forced on to and through it.”
