Liverpool Street: Stephen Fry against London railway station plans

Broadcaster Stephen Fry and artist Tracy Emin are among dozens of celebrities and conservationists who oppose a “highly opportunistic” development at London’s Liverpool Street station.

They want Level Up Director Michael Gove to intervene in a proposal by a developer-seller to build offices, shops and a hotel in the terminal.

Sellar said the plan includes more than £1.5bn of private investment.

We reached out to the Department of Upgrading, Housing and Communities for comment.

Network Rail, which owns the station and says the project will bring “long-term benefits”, has partnered with Sellar to develop the project with transport company MTR.

The station is used for mainline train connections to destinations in Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, as well as Elizabeth Line and London Underground services.

Sellers have said they will spend £450m to double the size of the station concourse and add elevators and escalators.

The company said the station had “substantial overcrowding” and “poor pedestrian accessibility and connectivity.”

The plan includes the reconstruction of the nearby Grade II listed Andaz Hotel, which opened in 1884 as the Great Eastern Hotel.

Opponents of the plan wrote in a letter: “A 15-story insensitively designed tower will be erected directly above the former Grade II listed Great Eastern Hotel, It would be highly opportunistic and wrong to partially demolish a demolition station and overwhelm a Victorian train shed.

“The claim that a cantilevered building directly above a heritage property somehow ‘preserves’ that property is nonsense and sets a dangerous precedent.

A spokesperson for the Cellars said: ‘Our proposal represents the significant upgrades needed for Liverpool Street station to address significant overcrowding and access issues while preserving and honoring its remaining Victorian elements. It is intended to provide

“Mr. Gove, or anyone involved in the decision-making process, has fully evaluated our proposal and the implications of building and removing less than half of the concourse roof in the 1980s and the privately funded We hope to balance this with the £450m public interest, which is at no cost to taxpayers.”

The campaign to save the station against development was first launched in the 1970s by then-Poet Laureate Sir John Bedgemann.

Last October, Robin Dobson, property director of the Network Rail Group, said the plan would “deliver a world-class transit interchange, along with new workspaces, centered around a new 24/7 leisure district.” said.