Controversial Liverpool Street station revamp gets green light

British studio ACME's contentious design for the revamp of the UK's busiest train station, London Liverpool Street, has been granted planning permission.

Approved by the City of London's planning committee, the overhaul is being carried out to improve accessibility and accommodate an increasing number of passengers at the Grade II-listed railway station.

The design will require part of Liverpool Street station to be demolished, while a 97-metre-tall office tower with curtain walls and plant-filled terraces will be added overhead.

Design "ensures the station will be future-proofed"

ACME's proposal replaces an earlier dual-tower design by Swiss studio Herzog & de Meuron, which was abandoned after thousands of objections due to concerns about the impact on Bishopsgate Conservation Area.

The redesign remains highly controversial, with criticism from various heritage groups, including the Victorian Society, which accused the City of London of having "bowed to developer ambitions".

"This decision represents a key step towards the transformation of Britain's busiest station and marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Liverpool Street," said Network Rail managing director Ellie Burrows.

"Our plans focus on improving the everyday experience for passengers whilst respecting the station's unique heritage. With annual passenger numbers forecast to grow to 158 million, this approval ensures the station will be future-proofed for decades to come."

Liverpool Street station opened in 1874 and was last redeveloped in 1991. From this time, passenger numbers have tripled.

Key elements of the redesign include increasing concourse capacity by 76 per cent and introducing more escalators, lifts and step-free access to all platforms.

"Landmark accessible entrances" with vaulted brick roofs will be introduced, according to the team, with clearer wayfinding leading to bus stops, bike stores and taxi ranks.

ACME also said the design "will unlock new views over the Victorian architecture", though concerns about the project's impact on Liverpool Street's heritage remain.

Victorian Society describes design as "disfiguring"

Victorian Society president Griff Rhys Jones described the news as "a sad day for the City of London".

"A disfiguring billion-pound office block on top of a major heritage asset is not essential to the city's development plans, it is doubtful whether it will easily provide the profit to 'improve' the concourse, and can only realise a small amount of extra space for the passenger," said Jones.

"It will destroy an existing conservation area. It demolishes listed buildings. It is harmful to the surrounding historic fabric," he continued. "It has been proposed on a false PR-led assertion that Network Rail is 'under instruction' to build on top of its London Stations. It is not."

Jones is also the president of the Liverpool Street Station Campaign (LISSCA), a coalition of organisations including SAVE Britain's Heritage, which was formed in the 1970s to oppose plans to demolish the station.

He said that improving the station's accessibility was "a statutory duty and should not require twenty storeys of office block", adding that the City of London had "bowed to developer ambitions".

"The City of London deserves better than this for its station – one of the busiest and therefore most important in Britain," he concluded.

Public reaction has "broken records"

Network Rail brought ACME on to design the proposal, which was submitted last April. It is set to cost £1.2 billion.

According to a report by The Times, the planning application received more than 3,700 objections and 1,100 in support.

"The proposals have broken records for the level of public reaction received, amassing the highest ever numbers of both objections and letters of support for an application in the City of London ahead of the council vote," read the report.

The approval of ACME's design follows an attempt by John McAslan + Partners to offer an alternative "light-touch" proposal, deemed more appropriate for the Victorian station and backed by SAVE Britain's Heritage.

Other controversial architecture proposals to have hit the headlines in London in recent years include Foster + Partners' design of the proposed Tulip tourist attraction, which was rejected by the UK government over concerns about embodied carbon and the quality of its design.

There were also plans for an MSG Sphere in the capital, but its creators withdrew plans for the venue after slamming the city's planning process as "a political football between rival parties".

The visuals are courtesy of Network Rail Property and ACME. 

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