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Rail chiefs sending out wrong signal by pulling down station
The recent demolition of Primrose Hill station is a sad waste of heritage and a missed opportunity for our transport network, argues Peter Darley
|THE razing in early December of the waiting room, wooden canopy, decorative cast iron columns, brackets and lamp standards on the platform at Primrose Hill railway station, dating from 1855, has destroyed a piece of almost unaltered classic early-Victorian architecture.
There is mounting concern, reflected in the founding of Camden Railway Heritage Trust two years ago, about the piecemeal destruction of the local railway heritage associated with London’s first mainline railway.
The demolition took place as a campaign to reopen the station was gathering momentum and when all local parties are calling for more public transport.
It was the subject of a recent newsletter drop to local residents by the Liberal Democrats.
Hampstead Road station, on the North London Railway (NLR), opened in 1851 and was rebuilt in 1855. The station was renamed Chalk Farm in 1862 with platforms on both the mainline to Euston and NLR suburban lines. After 1907, suburban traffic was lost to Chalk Farm Tube station, and the mainline station was demolished in 1915.
A new set of DC electric lines for suburban services was opened in stages from 1912. But the entire project was suspended in 1917 and, following completion of a major track remodelling scheme at Chalk Farm, the station reopened in 1922 with platforms on the line to Broad Street.
In 1950 Chalk Farm station became Primrose Hill station and the street building was reconstructed. Primrose Hill station was part of the service between Liverpool Street and Watford Junction. The last trains on this service ran on September 28 1992 when the station closed despite huge opposition from the local community.
After decades of neglect, in 2007 Transport for London (TfL) merged a number of lines, including the North London Line (NLL), to create the London Overground network. This will benefit from a £1.4billion cash injection to help the contractors transform the physical infrastructure, trains and service over seven years. In return, TfL expects a Metro-style high-efficiency service.
Only in Phase 2 of the service upgrade, after the 2012 Olympics, are trains planned to operate from Queen’s Park via South Hampstead to Camden Road and then on to Stratford, using what is currently a freight-only link at Primrose Hill. This development depends on the Bakerloo line takeover of Euston-Watford local services to remove trains between Queen’s Park and Euston. An extension of the Primrose Hill link from Queen’s Park to Willesden Junction DC platforms is also being considered for a later phase.
Reopening Primrose Hill station could therefore eventually connect it with Stratford in the east, Richmond in the west, Watford to the north and Clapham Junction to the south.
The reopening of Primrose Hill should be considered in the light of projected transport demands from locals, Londoners and visitors. It would relieve pressure on Camden Town station, where modernisation is still a distant prospect, connect with London Underground and bus services at Chalk Farm, and improve access to the north end of Camden Market. Such good intersection points are scarce on the NLL. It would also help meet the transport demands created by the Roundhouse and substantial new developments both in Stables Market and elsewhere locally.
Primrose Hill Conservation Area Advisory Committee, which strongly opposed closure, is very supportive of moves to reopen Primrose Hill station as a living part of our 19th-century heritage in Camden.
The heritage advisor to the Mayor of London has noted the pressure to reopen the station and spoken publicly of his support.
He writes: “The island platform buildings, with their elegant canopy, should be renovated if the station is to be reopened.”
Recent pictures of the station show that it was in a sound state and could have readily been renovated.
Yet Network Rail has stated that none of the groups consulted considered the platform facilities of sufficient heritage interest to merit preservation. It appears they have now been “recycled”.
The consultation involved no groups with local interest.
The platform facilities will now need to be rebuilt before the station can be reopened, making this eventuality far less likely on cost grounds.
While the main reasons given for demolition are the state of disrepair and safety, the fact that rail services can be run down and a station closed by the rail authorities against strong local opposition, then dismembered without any local consultation simply because it is no longer in use, seems quite grotesque. Do we continue to have so little say in the destruction of our Victorian heritage? Please let your voice be heard!
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