Famous comedian battles against huge London station makeover
Network Rail wants to change Liverpool Street Station with new offices and updated infrastructure but faces strong opposition. Well-known TV star **Griff Rhys Jones** leads fight to protect historic building features
In early nov-2024‚ Network Rail changed its big-scale plans for Liverpool Street Station after getting lots of push-back. The new idea is smaller – a 97m office tower (instead of 108m) thats set back from the old Great Eastern Hotel‚ with a special roof design that wont block views of St Pauls Cathedral
Griff Rhys Jones‚ who leads both the Liverpool Street Station Campaign and Victorian Society isnt happy with these new plans. “Its time for Network Rail to stop seeing this good-looking station as just a money-making spot; they need to think about what passengers want not profit“ he says‚ pointing out that over 2000 people didnt like the first plan
The main fight is about taking down parts of the stations 1980s-built roof (which has special listed status) and building new offices: Network Rail wants to make the space bigger for crowds‚ but critics say theres better ways to fix things. The campaign group thinks its just playing real-estate games with a historic building – theyʼre asking to see the project costs which Network Rail hasnt shared yet
Other London stations like Kings Cross and St Pancras have adapted to the 21st century; they revealed their original Railway Age splendour. It seems perverse that the proposals at Liverpool Street should still go in the opposite direction
Network Rails property boss Robin Dobson defends the changes: “The station needs big improvements; its hard to get around has no step-free access and gets too crowded. Our stations arent museum pieces – we want people to use and enjoy them“
