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Euston Arch: ‘a great symbol of arrival and departure’ |
Arrival of Euston station arch delayed... until 2012
Planners give green light to return of landmark after 50 years
A REBUILT Euston station will have to wait until at least 2012 because of a recession squeeze on funding – but it could include a new version of poet John Betjeman’s beloved Doric arch.
After a three-month public consultation, Camden Council last week approved a planning framework for the station and surrounding streets which recognised that owners Network Rail and British Land, while still intending to redevelop, would not do so until after the 2012 Olympics at the earliest.
But among mounting demands for a mosque, social housing and green spaces in the report, heritage campaigners have found support for the reconstruction of the station’s famous arch, destroyed in 1961 after a failed rescue campaign by the Victorian Society, led by Betjeman.
English Heritage applauded the council’s stated willingness to “consider proposals for viable schemes for reinstatement of the arch, subject to their heritage and urban design benefits”.
The arch, more properly a Doric propylaeum, was built in 1837 and became a 70-foot high symbol of the optimism and exuberance of the steam age.
Betjeman wrote of it: “Between the fluted columns, each eight-and-a-half feet in diameter, which formed the main carriage entrance, might be glimpsed the green hills of Hampstead beyond.”
Architectural historian and BBC programme-maker Dan Cruickshank, who discovered the remains of the arch in an east London river in 1993, is preparing to witness the raising of 10 of its stones from the river bed later this month.
He said on Tuesday that the slow reclamation of the original arch would only have meaning if it were to end up as part of a rebuilt Euston station.
He added: “The redevelopment would seem to be a long way off and there are so many big questions still to be answered about the station. But the arch is ‘the’ Euston arch, a great gateway, a great symbol of arrival and departure, and should not be robbed of its context, which is Euston.”
The station revamp, which includes three new platforms, was originally intended for 2011 but began to drift off schedule last year as funding dried up.
On Tuesday, a spokesman for Network Rail could not give a starting date but agreed it would not be until 2012.
He added: “Network Rail and British Land are continuing to progress their proposals for the potential redevelopment of Euston Station, despite the current challenging market conditions. The parties have entered into an extended ‘exclusivity agreement’ which reinforces the partners’ commitment to move the project forward.
“The focus over the next 12 to 18 months will be to take forward a number of key work streams – all of which underpin the design of the new station – which need to be finalised in advance of embarking on the detailed design and planning stages.” |
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