Network Rail Property has produced new proposals to redevelop London Liverpool Street Station after opposition to its previous ideas.
A 2023 plan for a 21-storey skyscraper on top generated significant objection from heritage organisations, sending Network Rail back to the drawing board. It says that the new plans still improve the station for passengers but protect its heritage setting.
Plans include increasing the size of the concourse to ease congestion, introducing step-free access across the station and London Underground with seven new lifts and four more escalators. There will also be more cafes, restaurants and shops.
A new, slightly smaller, office building on top of the station concourse will generate the money to pay for the improvements.
The new building will still be constructed over the station concourse but will be sufficiently set back from the hotel so as not to dominate it in the way it did before, Network Rail says. It will be lower than the previous design, with a highest point at 97 metres rather than 108 metres.
Network Rail will be consulting on the changes and intends to submit a planning application within the next few months.
Robin Dobson, group property director at Network Rail Property, said: “We’ve spent time talking and listening: our latest plans celebrate Victorian features including the original train shed and the Great Eastern Hotel.
“Network Rail Property is leading a new team with a new approach which will respect the station’s unique heritage – simple in design, embracing London’s mix of the old with the new.
Network Rail Property is working with London architects firm Acme. Friedrich Ludewig, founding director of Acme, said: “The 1990s saw a few stations such as Victoria, Cannon Street and Charing Cross compromised by over-station development. At Liverpool Street, we will retain the sense of a tall and airy concourse, with a flexible workplace building above to fund the development of the station at street level.”
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