TV star leads battle against Herzog & de Meuron’s Liverpool Street revamp

The alliance comprises the Victorian Society, of which Rhys Jones is chair, SAVE Britain’s Heritage, the Twentieth Century Society, The Georgian Group, Historic Buildings and Places, London Historians and The Spitalfields Trust. Historic England has also separately delivered stinging criticism of the plans.

The campaign launched on Friday (3 February) with a petition that called the new high-rise plans ‘damaging’.

Herzog & de Meuron’s massive £1.5 billion proposals, for developers Sellar and Network Rail, include two high-rise blocks on top of the station and the neighbouring Grade II*-listed hotel.  The 15 and 21-storey towers would provide more hotel and office space while the original trainshed would not be altered.

The redevelopment would also include £450 million of station improvements including better disabled access, the developers insist.

But campaigners said the towers would put the station concourse in the shade ‘and destroy the impression of a cohesive Victorian space’, while the the former Great Eastern Hotel would ‘become closed office space no longer accessible to the public’. Heritage groups said additions to the hotel by Manser and Terence Conran ‘would also be lost’.

The alliance is effectively a resurrected version of the 1970s Liverpool Street Station Campaign group which successfully battled plans to demolish the station.

Launching the campaign, Rhys Jones said that if these ‘unnecessary, destructive, and wasteful’ plans were given the go-ahead it would set a precedent, meaning that other listed buildings may no longer be safe.

‘I use Liverpool Street Station a lot,’ he said. ‘I know it very well. It’s my London station. I love it. It is a great and distinguished, working monument. This campaign is very personal to me but I am only adding a voice to an extraordinary uniformity of concern.’

He added: ‘All the major heritage sector bodies are appalled by what is proposed. They have joined together. They all want to try to preserve a superb London landmark. I have seldom seen such uniformity.

‘We believe the people of London will be with us too, if they are properly informed. This great station and hotel are not only important listed buildings, they are part of the living story of London, just as much as Westminster Abbey or St Paul’s.

‘They should be safe from part demolition and what is intended to be a huge, 16-storey, cantilevered tower, stuck directly above them, blacking out the daylight and virtually burying the original buildings.’

But a spokesperson for the project team said the Herzog & de Meuron proposals would ‘ensure Liverpool Street station’s future as a major transport hub and create a new seven days a week destination for the City’.

They added: ‘The station that the Victorian Society campaigned to save in the 1970s no longer exists as much of it was demolished in the 1980s. Our approach prioritises protecting and enhancing the remaining heritage elements, both within the Andaz hotel and the station itself.  The Victorian elements of the station are not being demolished.

‘We are working closely with key stakeholders to try and sensitively integrate the commercial elements of the project, which ultimately unlock the much needed £450 million of infrastructure improvements which will alleviate significant access and overcrowding issues, whilst delivering essential passenger capacity and customer facilities, at no cost to the taxpayer or train passengers.’

Herzog & de Meuron’s plans have been updated since they were first unveiled last November, after Historic England upgraded the listing of the hotel and expanded the listing of the station to include its 1990s buildings in December.

But the public heritage watchdog was not impressed by the new plans either, calling them ‘oversized and insensitive’.

Historic England’s extended listing does not include the McDonald’s building at 50 Liverpool Street, scheduled for demolition, Hope Square or the Bishopsgate entrances.

The development team previously pointed out that ‘all post-1985 retail structures, fixtures, signage, toilets, stairs, escalators, raised walkways and inserted offices within the concourse [were] excluded from the listing’.

In addition to the towers, Herzog & de Meuron’s plans include six new escalators, taking passengers down to platform level, as well as the opening-up a thoroughfare connecting Liverpool Street and Sun Street.

Under the proposals, Hope Square and Bishopsgate Square will be overhauled as part of a move to improve access to the station, London Underground, and the Elizabeth Line.

If approved, Sellar said it could start the redevelopment in the second half of 2024, with a view to completing in 2029.