I have been alerted to the increasingly bizarre situation surrounding the potential modernisation of Liverpool Street Station (see below). As posters on Instagram suggest, it could benefit from new loos and better disabled access. But does this really require building tower blocks on top of the station or the adjacent hotel, completely out of scale with the station itself ?
Liverpool Street Station was preserved as the result of one of the epic conservation battles of the 1970s. The adjacent land was developed as Broadgate, which is already in the process of being demolished.
Why can’t we just leave the Victorian train sheds alone, preserve them and protect them, with their lovely Victorian roofs and ironwork detailing ? And put in some new lifts and escalators and maybe renovate the hotel.
It requires a firm of good conservation architects, not a lot of aggressively posturing new build, creating new offices which may not be required.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
Dear Charles
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/28/smithfield-billingsgate-market-redevelopment-plans-traders-city-of-london-corporation
Would be keen to know your thoughts on the redevelopment of this historically significant part of the CofL. I’m all for London Museum moving there but more homes for the extremely wealthy and culturally ignorant?
Is London the only major city where it happily erases 800 years of social history? I guess money talks.
Kind regards Elaine
Dear Elaine, I’m doing a talk on the future of Smithfield next month, so am trying to figure out what would be best for it. I think the traders have now agreed to move out. Charles