Liverpool Street Station Interior Photo: Guy Newton
In a highly unusual situation, the public is faced with not one but two live and competing planning applications for the major redevelopment of Liverpool Street Station.
The Liverpool Street Station Campaign (LISSCA) was re-established to save Liverpool Street Station from inappropriate development, and to ensure that any redevelopment and upgrade proposals are sympathetic and proportionate.
The LISSCA Committee, chaired by The Victorian Society and incorporating five of the national amenity societies, is now calling on the public to object to Network Rail and ACME’s recently validated planning application by the 4 July 2025.
While Network Rail asserts that its latest scheme, developed with architects ACME, is the only means of delivering required station upgrades, simultaneously, the national amenity societies are also being consulted by Sellar and Herzog & de Meuron on a revision of its original 2023 application, which initially attracted over 2,000 objections from the public. That application remains live on the City of London’s planning portal, and the revisions, it is claimed, will render that scheme far less harmful.
The situation is confusing and highly unusual. It is also likely to put extra stressors, including costs, on the City of London’s planning department and its staff.
LISSCA is not opposed to the principle of functional and accessibility upgrades to the station. However, it strongly opposes Network Rail’s latest scheme, which would cause substantial harm to the historic station and its setting, and to the surrounding Conservation Area. This is not the best way of achieving necessary improvements to ensure the ongoing operational capability of the station.
Some of the major points of objection to ACME and Network Rail’s recently validated scheme:
- The substantial harm to the Grade II-listed station through the demolition of the existing station concourse and its replacement with a new structure, which would also compromise the setting of the surviving 19th-century train shed;
- The insertion of extensive amounts of new retail units within the 19th-century train sheds, including the construction of two elevated retail galleries, causing a high level of harm to the special interest and significance of the Grade II-listed heritage asset;
- The impact to the setting of surrounding heritage assets. In particular, harm to the significance of the Grade II*-listed Great Eastern Hotel (now Andaz London Liverpool Street) – the last continually functioning 19th-century hotel in the City – through the construction of a tall tower block directly on top of the station concourse.
- The substantial harm the scheme would cause to the Bishopsgate Conservation Area, by the imposition of a tall building in an area characterised by low- and medium-scale buildings. This is contrary to the 2015 City Plan, which requires the refusal of planning permission for tall buildings in inappropriate areas, such as in Conservation Areas and the St. Paul’s Cathedral Heights area. In addition, the scheme would impact on the setting of numerous designated and undesignated heritage assets in the City and beyond, such as many of the Grade I-listed Christopher Wren City churches, and nearby St Botolph’s church.
The Victorian Society’s guide for members of the public wishing to write an objection to the redevelopment is here.
