Planned improvements around Centre Point

[The Sage]

LOL

[chrissyb]

Thanks for the video - good to see a long shot with the hoardings going up and the new development in the distance.

I'm still not clear what if anything is being re-built. The buildings on Charing Cross road are going to be replaced with a new road structure.

The buildings opposite Centre Point are to be replaced - and we don't know with what yet?

Is that the up-shot?

[Light Parade]

Best summary of works around Centre Point that I have been able to dig out is at this easy to remember URL: http://billdocuments.crossrail.co.uk...ters_05-07.pdf.

Plan is to replace Astoria/Dionysus with a high-quality, masonry (as opposed to glass'n'steel) building, no one knows what yet, as this is years out. The Andrew Bordes block partly allows for ventilation shafts, but there will also be low(er) level new-build on this site.

Many years of digging holes to follow before all this comes to pass, of course.

[Light Parade]

Scaffolding's going up on the Astoria

[derwent]

Originally Posted by Lord Nelson

Yep, the "metro" is going, too. It is on the back of the round curved house which has the greek restaurant (Dionysus) at the front.

It's such a shame this corner building is for the chop. It has looked filthy and shabby for years, but would look so handsome if it was cleaned up. Personally I find the Astoria building rather ugly. I won't miss it (though I've got years of happy memories stumbling out of the place). But these lovely corner buildings really should be saved - or at least the front should.

[Mr Bricks]

Yeah, we can build cities on water and mile high buildings, yet these buildings are impossible to preserve.

[DarJoLe]

Originally Posted by Mr Bricks

Yeah, we can build cities on water and mile high buildings, yet these buildings are impossible to preserve.

Unfortunately we haven't found a way of making buildings float on thin air.

[kleinhond]

Is the red building on Oxford St with the Tube station signs being demolished too?

[NothingBetterToDo]

^ I was wondering that too, the one with the Tottenham Court Rd tube entrance. I think that's the best of the bunch, it will be a huge shame to see that one go.

[DarJoLe]

Originally Posted by kleinhond

Is the red building on Oxford St with the Tube station signs being demolished too?

Yes and the one to the right of that as well.

[Vodski Bandit]

Originally Posted by DarJoLe

Yes and the one to the right of that as well.

Oh you're joking! I thought they were staying, they're fantastic, now that really is a shame imo. Wasn't too distraught about the others if I'm honest, but those, well

[Isaac Newell]

It's going to look pretty soul-less around here in the future, a mini Westfield Centre.

Shame

[.Adam]

I am all for improvements, especially around Tottenham court road, but I just cant believe these buildings are being destroyed. To me these little buildings are what make up Londons rich history and urban environment, I fail to believe there is no way these buildings could have been incorporated somehow...

[Mr Bricks]

Originally Posted by DarJoLe

Unfortunately we haven't found a way of making buildings float on thin air.

So the new buildings are not following the old street line? I just can´t understand how developers can come in and sweep away a whole row of Victorian buildings claiming they´re impossible to preserve. Are they not listed?

[DarJoLe]

Originally Posted by Mr Bricks

I just can´t understand how developers can come in and sweep away a whole row of Victorian buildings claiming they´re impossible to preserve.

They need to demolish them so they can build a massive hole where they stand. Unless we can make the buildings float above this hole I don't see how they can be saved. I dread to think how long and how much it would cost to demolish each facade brick by brick (without them falling apart from decay), clean, store, and rebuild in 2017. Probably about as much as Crossrail itself.

[DarJoLe]

Originally Posted by Mr Bricks

I just can´t understand how developers can come in and sweep away a whole row of Victorian buildings claiming they´re impossible to preserve.

They need to demolish them so they can build a massive hole where they stand. Unless we can make the buildings float above this hole I don't see how they can be saved. I dread to think how long and how much it would cost to demolish each facade brick by brick (without them falling apart from decay), clean, store, and rebuild in 2017. Probably about as much as Crossrail itself.

We haven't seen any of the replacement buildings yet and are unlikely to until well into the next decade. Who knows what the replacement will be? Maybe by then Quinlan Terry will be the default architect in London and they will be replaced with a whole row of classical looking buildings, which are much more impressive than the current one. Who knows?

[Officer Dibble]

It's a moderately attractive row of Victorian facades, worth keeping if all other things were equal - but they're not. This is Crossrail, people - it would arguably be worth pulling down a medieval palace if we had to. Luckily, we don't have to, and nothing special will be lost - so let's not lose any sleep over the mediocre bits and bobs that have to make way (and hope they put something decent in their place, i.e. not just yet another big glass box).

[NothingBetterToDo]

I agree, it's a shame that they are going, but that's all....a shame. They need to go for the greater good.

There are very few circumstances where i would be supportive of a fairly substantial row of attractive victorian buildings being demolished, but Crossrail is one those few.

(The Astoria on the other hand is an absolutely vile building, and proves the fact that there are bad examples from every era - i won't be sorry to see that ugly brute biting the dust)

[Light Parade]

Dibble is spot-on re the Victorian buildings.

Walk half a mile in any direction from St Giles Circus and you will see a hundred better built, better preserved and more interesting Victorian facades than these.

As to the risk to medieval palaces and the like - take a look at the Crossrail route plan and see how the lines cunningly diverge and then come together again, to avoid undermining St Giles church - which is as it should be.

Of course, the new Tottenham Court Road station will also have an entrance several blocks up Oxford Street, and that will entail removing a small block of Soho including (swoon) a fairly knackered Georgian house.

[Mr Bricks]

Originally Posted by DarJoLe

They need to demolish them so they can build a massive hole where they stand.

I thought the hole would be built behind the facades.

Originally Posted by Officer Dibble

it would arguably be worth pulling down a medieval palace if we had to

This is what worries me. I know London really needs crossrail and if this was the last time they pulled down old attractive buildings it would be fine. But what if a similar development was to be proposed in the middle of the grand Victorian West End. Would they tear down Regent Street for this? Where do you draw the line?