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Town Hall silence paved way to station’s demolition
• I WAS shocked and dismayed to read that Network Rail had – seemingly with no warning – demolished what was left of Primrose Hill Station (Victorian Station is flattened, December 31).
As your report said, many local people and rail campaigners were calling for its reinstatement.
Only a couple of years ago, the Greater London Assembly’s transport committee said that Transport for London should ensure that nothing is done to prevent the potential reopening of the station.
Despite the keen levels of support this proposal had, it is sad that Camden Council didn’t throw it’s weight behind the move.
I can’t recall seeing any public statements of endorsement, from the Tories and Lib Dems running the council, let alone suggestions for making a reopened station a reality.
Perhaps if there had been more of an official push from the Town Hall on this, Network Rail might have thought twice before taking irrevocable action.
Along with Mayor Johnson’s decision to downgrade the improvements to capacity at Camden Road station, this decision shows that, despite Ken Livingstone’s efforts to give it a new lease of life under the London Overground banner, this line seems fated to be the Cinderella of our local public transport services.
MIKE KATZ
Gladys Road
NW6
Act of vandalism which showed contempt for local people
• I WAS appalled to read that Network Rail has demolished Primrose Hill Station without any public consultation.
History has taught us that even if a branch line or station is not viable it is best left gathering dust since it is difficult to predict future transport trends.
A future generation may wish to use these assets in a different form. Look at all the branch lines now run by steam enthusiasts and the canal network.
Even if Primrose Hill Station needed repairs, a consultation usually rallies the community to come up with imaginative schemes for preserving the structure. No doubt the same engineers would have demolished the Roundhouse many years ago.
Network Rail used the excuse of the station being structurally unsafe. Perhaps they would care to justify their actions against a backdrop of the evidence of these pictures, taken from www.abandonedstations.org.uk. These show that the station was in very good condition, given that it had been abandoned for 20 years.
This destruction can only be considered as a cynical act of vandalism to head off a campaign for re-opening the station.
Network Rail has no right to treat local people with such contempt and should be held to account.
JONNY BUCKNELL
Chamberlain Street
NW1
We’ve got one that really should be knocked down
• HOW typical of Network Rail to demolish the historic Primrose Hill station from under the noses of conservationists without any consultation and with no attempt to save parts of it for posterity.
On the other hand, how reluctant they are to demolish a hideous, derelict substation that sits, covered in graffiti, at the southern rim of Parliament Hill Fields on Hampstead Heath.
Here, residents and their council representatives have been pressing to have the eyesore demolished for more than a decade – only to have been lied to and strung along by an ever-changing cast of bureaucrats.
Network Rail claims the cost of demolition of this rat-infested property is too high, and yet they were able to find much larger sums to demolish Primrose Hill station.
Where is the MP who will take up the challenge of proposing a change to the antiquated legislative powers relied on by Network Rail so that its management can be held accountable?
Joyce Glasser
Savernake Road
NW3
Now for Primrose Hill International?
• I WONDER if the recently demolished Primrose Hill station might not in future be needed for a much more strategic role than it ever filled in the past.
If the proposed high-speed railway from London to the North goes ahead, a logical use for this line would be to run trains through to continental Europe.
Such trains will need to pick up and set down in London for commercial reasons, and capacity at St Pancras is likely to be limited. (Incidentally, to what extent will possible extension be ruled out by the King’s Cross redevelopment ?)
So how about a new international station at Primrose Hill? It would be well sited for services to continental Europe on the one hand and the north and west of England, also Heathrow Airport, on the other.
There would be potential interchange with the Underground (at Chalk Farm), the Overground (at the just demolished station), and with the Cross River Tramway should that scheme ever get resurrected.
The station would also be well sited as a tourist destination, being within easy walking distance of Camden Lock market and the associated railway and canal heritage, Primrose Hill and its view over London, and London Zoo.
A direct bus link to Oxford Street through Regent’s Park would also be helpful.
SIMON NORTON
Howitt Close
NW3
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