Redevelopment plans around London’s Waterloo train station have been published, which include plans to leave some of the iconic area with a look ‘more classical in character’, say reports.
The proposal, from David Chipperfield Architects, is for two impressive buildings, one of twenty-five storeys and one of nine storeys, with a public square linking the pair. There is provision for residential and commercial property, and retail and café operations.
The taller of the two, on the north side, has been designed to accommodate the tube tunnels snaking beneath its structure. A steel bridging structure will carry the weight, viewable through a ‘light weight glazed curtain wall’. The east side has been earmarked for the installation of a shared-surface ramp, named Victory Arch Square, which will lead directly into the station.
Commercial property activity is also planned for beneath the station. The basement of the now-abandoned Waterloo International Terminal may be resurrected, apparently set aside for use by a supermarket chain. A tunnel will be built to help the flow of visitors, allowing them easy access from the commercial property concourse to the station’s platforms.
David Chipperfield will lead the project, having been contracted by developer Chelsfield, in an area he described last year as ‘a complete mess’. In the same interview, he offered some candid opinions, describing the City of London as a ‘free development zone’, where rules are ‘completely open’. This can be a danger, he added, when it is unclear how or when to impose restrictions on regeneration.
This sizeable scheme is expected to be submitted for approval ‘later this summer’, with completion scheduled for 2015; getting the commercial property go-ahead hinges on the design not interfering with views of St Paul’s Cathedral. This was the reason for an earlier scuppering of a submission by urban planners Allies and Morrison.
