Oversite development being planned for London Victoria rail station
Network Rail is reportedly considering a major redevelopment of Victoria station, with an on-site office and housing as likely options.
A couple of lines in Westminster Council’s draft infrastructure plan, which is currently out for consultation, mentioned the potential redevelopment of the station. That the station was being considered for an oversite development is not a surprise, as it’s been pretty much an open secret within the rail community for some years, but this may be the first written confirmation that work is progressing on the plans.
The council’s draft plan says that a “large-scale redevelopment of Victoria Station to accommodate growing passenger numbers and demand” is being worked on by Network Rail. The report also says further down that this is classed as having a long timescale, so don’t expect anything soon.
What might be sooner is another line in the report, which was truncated to just “Re-location of parts of station operation to allow creation of” and classed as medium. As the rest of the sentence was redacted, it’s not possible to say what is being relocated, but it would likely be back-of-house functions to create space to shuffle passenger services around during a later redevelopment of the station.
Although the station has undergone some improvements over the years, it has long been hamstrung by the fact that it is actually two separate stations that were later glued together to create a single but awkwardly laid-out concourse.
While most of the platforms have been built over, notably by the shopping centre and offices on the western side of the station, which opened in September 1987, less noticeable to passengers using the station is that the central section of the station is occupied by a large car park — rather an incongruous sight in the modern city.
Thanks to the previous work building over the far end of the station, redeveloping the shopping centre and the neighbouring car park, and potentially over the remaining tracks, would offer space for a sizeable oversite development without encroaching on the glass-covered train shed. Such a development would also sit far back away from the historic frontage, so it would be less likely to have heritage implications.
You’ll need to wait to see when the plans are announced.
The Draft Infrastructure Plan is here.
Who needs natural light when there’s some money to be made and director bonuses to secure?
Prepare to hear about all the supposed “accessibility improvements” this plan will bring and completely unrealistic renders full of light (and devoid of crowds or advertising), which like at Liverpool St is how they try to sell these money-making schemes.
Nah, as Ian alludes to it’s most likely they’ll build on top of the car park and redevelop the now outdated shopping centre rather than plonk something on top of the steel and glass roof at the northern end. Also possible they build on top of the exposed tracks to the east of the car park and south up to Elizabeth Bridge, but that cost a decent amount.
Liverpool Street is different as if NR want to do any OSD of any scale they’ll have to encroach on the concourse and immediate surrounding. Personally think LS should be left alone and focus shift to Victoria and Waterloo.