The end of the line?

There are shocking plans afoot to modernise Liverpool Street Station, but it’s not the first of London’s historic Victorian stations to come under attack, says Jack Watkins, as he takes a look at some of the ones saved and those that were less fortunate

- Jack Watkins

THE current opposition to plans to erect a cantilevered, 16-storey tower over the concourse of Liverpool Street Station is the latest in a series of stand-offs across the decades to protect the best of London’s railway architecture. At the time of writing, the scheme was opposed by eight conservation groups and Historic England. A public petition, See it, Say It, Save It!, had more than 11,000 signatures. A Victorian Society-led Liverpool Street Station Campaign (Athena, May 10), with Griff Rhys Jones installed as president, has revived memories of the 1970s battle at Liverpool Street, spearheaded by Sir John Betjeman, which eventually ended in a remodelling widely applauded for its sensitivity towards the historic fabric.

It’s worth remembering that the great London Victorian railway terminals so fiercely prized today must have seemed overwhelming monstrosities to locals in their time, their infrastructures carving through communities and causing the displacement of many inhabitants. Even so, it’s generally accepted that London has a proud legacy of railway buildings from that period, several of the terminals among the finest in the world. The oldest, London Bridge, the capital’s first rail terminal on opening in 1836, is not among them, although the Architects’