Monday 28th August 2023
Photo: Liverpool Street Station Campaign Logo. Photo Copyright: Liverpool Street Station Campaign (LISSCA).
Members of the campaign to Save Liverpool Street Station are using The Betjeman Society’s birthday celebration for its hero Sir John Betjeman, on 28 August, to launch a major fundraising appeal across all members of the campaign to meet the costs of fighting to prevent harm to the Grade II listed station and the Grade II* listed former Great Eastern Hotel. Sir John was the secretary of the The Victorian Society when it formed and was the figurehead of the campaigns to save both Liverpool Street Station and St Pancras Station in the 1960s and 1970s.
The event on Bank Holiday Monday, 28 August includes poetry readings, cupcakes and a guided tour of the station, before moving on to another Victorian railway station admired by Sir John, St Pancras, where Society members gather yearly by the poet’s statue.
Network Rail, developer Sellar and rail network operator MTR plan to demolish much of the listed sympathetic 20th century trainshed which closely matches the Victorian original, severing the link between the two listed Victorian buildings, and cantilevering a 21-storey tower above the hotel and station. This is unprecedented over a Grade II* listed building. The Victorian Society and 10 other amenity societies and heritage organisations believe that if plans are approved it would set a terrible precedent which would mean that no listed building is safe from harm. The campaign has called on Secretary of State Michael Gove to call the planning application in once it is validated by the City of London Corporation planning department.
The Victorian Society is chairing the reformed Liverpool Street Station Campaign committee (LISSCA) which stopped the station’s total demolition in the 1970s. The committee is comprised of The Twentieth Century Society, Historic Buildings & Places, The Georgian Group, SAVE Britain’s Heritage, The Spitalfields Trust, Civic Voice, London Historians, The Betjeman Society, The Council for British Archaeology, London and Middlesex Archaeological Society and The Victorian Society.
Help Save Liverpool Street Station please donate here https://justgiving.com/campaign/savelivstreet
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