I had not appreciated until this evening the enormity of the planned changes to Liverpool Street Station and, based on the accompanying article (assuming you are able to open it), it is hard to judge.
On the one hand, Liverpool Street is now surrounded by massive skyscrapers. Herzog and de Meuron are still amongst the best of the international big name architects, having started their career by designing a beautiful signal box in Basel. And I am perhaps unusual in being an admirer of the Shard, which was put up by Irvine Sellar, who founded the Sellar Property Group. Should one just accept that the City has now so changed its character that fighting to retain an important Victorian building is just hopelessly retardataire ?
On the other hand, I remember the late John Chesshyre fighting to preserve Liverpool Station in the 1970s, as did John Betjeman. They won ! The station has been preserved, a monument not least to the kindertransport, recorded in Sebald’s Austerlitz. Now, it is going to be totally submerged within a monster new development.
I am not convinced it’s a good idea.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 