“I cannot believe that we have had to put a national monument, a great railway station, a part of the story of London and the City, onto our list of endangered buildings.”
The words of Griff Rhys Jones, president of the Victorian Society (VS), when Liverpool Street station was named on the conservation group’s ‘Top Ten Endangered Buildings 2023’ list.
According to the society, Liverpool Street station (a Grade 2 Listed building) is at risk, together with the former Great Eastern Hotel (listed at Grade 2*, and now the Andaz London Liverpool Street hotel - a 5-star Hyatt property), following plans “to demolish much of the sympathetic 20th century trainshed which closely matches the Victorian original, On the previous six pages, we’ve heard about examples of railway heritage that have been successfully restored and repurposed. But other sites are at risk of disappearing forever. DR JOSEPH BRENNAN tours the UK to find out more severing the link between the two listed buildings”.
VS also objects to plans to “cantilever a 21-storey tower above the hotel and station” - something it says is “unprecedented over a Grade 2* Listed building”.
The plans have attracted the ire of a host of public figures and conservationists. In a letter, they described the proposed development as “grossly opportunistic and wrong” and one that would (if allowed to proceed) set “a dangerous precedent”.
Jones is also president of the reformed Liverpool Street Station campaign, which he says “previously stopped the station’s total demolition in the 1970s”.
This example involves assets that are very much still part of Britain’s modern network.
But across Britain there are many more examples of railway heritage under threat, including less publicised cases involving buildings that are no longer under railway ownership.
Combing Britain’s at-risk registers, this story takes stock of rail heritage currently at risk across and beyond the network, as well as some of the steps being taken to help safeguard the future of these historic buildings and sites.
In each case, we start where perhaps good conservation always should: with structures of historical significance most at risk of imminent loss.
How can we help bring back our historical gems from a fate of total loss?
ENGLAND
Historic England (HE) maintains a Herita
