New look for historic station
THIS is how the historic South Kensington Tube station could soon look to the 34 million visitors it welcomes every year.
The new designs for the station, which serves the iconic Natural History Museum, the V&A and Science Museum will see step-free access on the Circle and District line.
Transport for London and Native Land unveiled the latest designs to the public at a two-day exhibition, which attracted more than 800 visitors, and they plan to submit an application to Kensington & Chelsea Council soon.
It is the latest in a series of ambitious plans drawn up over the past few years, has five storeys and is designed by renowned architects Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners.
The current multi-million pound scheme also includes 50 new homes – 35% of them affordable – as demanded by Kensington & Chelsea
Council’s minimum quota. It will also include a range of shops.
The station opened in 1868 and TfL says the new designs “are carefully considered in order to respect, and respond to, the unique and important heritage of the area”.
It said the scheme will sensitively “repair and enhance the Grade II listed South Kensington station” and “restore the historic arcade to its former glory”, together with step-free accessibility to the District and Circle line and better accessibility to the famous tunnel, which takes tourists straight to the doors of the museums.
There’s also plans for a new entrance on Thurloe Street that will facilitate the step-free access.
In the future, TfL expects the number of passengers will go up and has already received planning permission for station capacity upgrade works, designed by Weston Williamson and Partners.
These plans will include a larger, more spacious ticket hall and were granted planning and listed building consent in January 2018.
They do not form part of the current proposals by TfL and Native Land.
A disused platform will also be brought back into service, although overall there will not be an increase in the number of platforms.
The designs also include a new building at the front of the station at Cromwell Place, which is dubbed the Bullnose because of its “unique shape”.
Developers reduced its height from five storeys to four, after earlier consultations. However, some residents who attended the exhibition were not won over.
Bob Maybon, from the Brompton Association, said: “I think the scale of this is all wrong.
“Architecturally it lets down the relationship with anything around. This is a conservation area.”
David Edwards, from the Knightsbridge Residents’ Association, said he thought the scale of the scheme was too large.
“It’s colossal,” he said, and explained the area “has got a villagey feel”.
Sandra Cavlov said she thought the design for the Bullnose was “horrible – it’s a conservation area”.
Laurent Segalen said he did not like the plan to “build four storeys on a Victorian building”.
Jonathan Keighley, who lives nearby, said “we all want a better station of course”, but added he feared the scheme “will affect us very dramatically”.
Beatrice Keighley added: “They are changing the area so much.”
She said she was concerned about the traffic impact with the planned new homes and added: “I think it’s got very little sympathy with the local architecture.”
Bhavesh Patel, who has a clientele of tourists, locals and embassies at his shop Fotofast, which has been in the shopping arcade since the 1970s, is worried businesses will be priced out. “It will be food, food, food,” he said.
TfL’s property development manager Scott Anderson told the Local
Democracy Reporting Service: “Our priority is to deliver for one of the jewels of the estate. It’s a wonderful station and has got a wonderful heritage.”
He said the revenue from the development will help fund TfL’s transport infrastructure.
Mr Anderson said: “We want a vibrant mix of shop types here. We want shops that trade well.
“We want tenants that stay a long time. It is a vibrant retail location.”
Graeme Craig, TfL’s director of commercial development, said the scheme “would be in keeping with the surrounding scale, as well as the station’s role as a gateway to some of the most important and treasured cultural institutions in the world”.
Native Land’s chief executive Alasdair Nicholls said the design “aims to provide for a high-quality contemporary development that respects its unique historical context, providing new homes, including affordable housing, and a contemporary range of shops, restaurants and workspaces.”