A bold new vision for the upgrading of Liverpool Street Station in London has been unveiled today, with the backing of heritage campaigners C20 Society and SAVE Britain’s Heritage.

The concept proposal has been designed by John McAslan + Partners (JMP), the architects behind the celebrated transformation of King’s Cross Station, and Expedition, engineers of the 2012 Olympic Velodrome. It shows that, with an innovative and sympathetic design approach, the station enhancements and accessibility upgrades everyone wants at Liverpool Street could be achieved without building a destructive tower through the concourse and without years of passenger disruption.

With an elegant, low-profile vaulted design that echoes both classic railway architecture and the 1990 SOM building across Exchange Square, JMP propose adding a vaulted office building with a public garden over the northern end of the platforms. The low-carbon design, wrapped in a high-quality sustainable façade, would hang nine floors of cross-laminated timber from a lightweight steel frame, avoiding the need for internal columns or demolition of the platform roofs. It would deliver the crucial accessibility and capacity upgrades to the station; including new escalators, lifts, waiting areas, toilets and a cycle hub, while removing the unsightly retail mezzanine, decluttering the concourse and open up heroic views along the trainshed from its publicly accessible landscaped walkway.

The JMP concept has been welcomed by Sir Tim Smit, founder of the pioneering Eden Project, and by heritage and sustainability experts as a breakthrough contribution to a debate that has so far been dominated by one idea: large-scale demolition and a 20-storey tower.

A controversial planning application by Network Rail to build a 20-storey tower over the station is due to be considered by the City of London planning committee in early 2026. It has met with significant opposition from commuters and conservation groups since it was submitted in April. This scheme would cost in excess of £1.2bn and is “not technically viable” according to Network Rail’s own advisors. In contrast the new JMP scheme is viable, deliverable, and channels the same spirit of innovation and ambition that is being celebrated this year, the 200th anniversary of the railways. We are now urging Network Rail to pause the current planning process while it considers this alternative approach.

Benefits of the JMP vision

• Provides close to 700,000sq ft of offices, including concourse retail and the restoration and renewal of the elegant 50 Liverpool Street building.
• Early estimates are about half the cost of the £1.2bn current scheme, based on current prices
• Minimises disruption to passengers during construction, particularly around the critical concourse and entrance areas
• Future-proofs the station to meet passenger growth forecasts and deliver the station upgrades Network Rail is trying to achieve
• Restores and upgrades the historic grade II-listed station and trainshed
• Involves almost no demolition, avoiding the need to remove the existing roof or construct a deep transfer slab above the concourse, which would impact daylight and the setting of the grade II* Andaz (Great Eastern) Hotel
• Adopts a low-carbon approach from the outset. With innovative engineering (such as the highly efficient arched tension structure) and robust materials (with twice the typical design life), the offices would be the antithesis of an off-the-peg glass curtain-wall office building reliant on last-century thinking
• CO2 emissions are further reduced by reusing existing fabric such as 50 Liverpool Street, keeping construction to a minimum and avoiding demolition and carbon-intensive piling, columns and transfer structure
• Designed to align with the scale and character of surrounding buildings
• Provides new landscaped public walkways along the trainshed between Exchange Square and the station concourse
• Designed to be reversible, should requirements change at a later date

John McAslan, founder of John McAslan + Partners (JMP), said: “At Liverpool Street Station we seek to embrace the past, present and future in a way that celebrates transport architecture by retaining and protecting the station’s historic fabric and also future-proofs it – an approach we adopted at King’s Cross Station.

“Importantly, our emerging ideas for Liverpool Street Station are proportionate in scale to the existing structure and aligned with the level of additional development required to finance the station’s upgrade.

“Our approach is phasable and will ensure Liverpool Street Station remains operational with minimal disruption during its construction period. Thanks to our team’s ecologically led fabric-first design approach which embeds our practice ethos of ‘enoughness’, we do no more than is needed to deliver a successful outcome for the station and its passengers.”

Catherine Croft, director of the Twentieth Century Society, said: “We are delighted that John McAslan’s concept explores an alternative strategy. It would add a further layer of sensitive adaption to the site, keeping all the significant C20th parts which make a major contribution to the history of the station and avoiding building over the main concourse. We hope it will open up the debate about how we fund major infrastructure projects, and how we balance heritage and financial interests. Fresh thinking at this point is very much needed.”

Sir Tim Smit, founder of the Eden Project, who is advising on McAslan’s landscape and biodiversity strategy, said JMP’s alternative vision “offers an exhilarating reimagining of Edward Wilson’s breathtaking trainshed, a cathedral-like masterpiece; a station that has grown over the years to become the busiest in Britain and one of the busiest in Europe.”