An attempted overhaul of Camden Town tube station fell through in 2004

Published: 19 September, 2013
by RICHARD OSLEY

TRANSPORT chiefs are finally ready to revamp overcrowded Camden Town tube station – nearly a decade after bungling an upgrade.

London Underground officials last night (Wednesday) told a council committee that “lessons had been learned” from the failed attempt to grab land around the station, bring in bulldozers and build a seven-storey complex of shops and offices in its place.

They have been bumped into drawing up new plans after seeing demand for tube travel ­rocket and studying passenger projections which ­suggest the station is close to its “saturation” point.

The warning for commuters and daily users at Camden Town is that if Transport for London do nothing, then restricted opening hours like those used at the weekend when thousands of tourists flock to the market could also be used during week days.

The new £200million plan, which officials stressed is in its earliest possible stages and needs to be approved by City Hall budget-­makers and the Mayor, is likely to see a new entrance constructed in Buck Street.

It is being put forward with a proviso that Hawley School’s proposed move goes ahead. It is to be relocated on the new Hawley Wharf site – the canalside area due to be redeveloped after parts of it were ravaged by the 2008 Camden Fire.   

In a separate project, underground bosses are looking at congestion at Holborn station, with the idea of a “compact” redevelopment being discussed, albeit with the demolition of buildings close to the site and the potential use of the old Kingsway tram tunnel.

There has hardly been a whisper about the future of the Camden Town tube station since 2004 when the then deputy prime minister John Prescott officially threw out a hugely controversial makeover, which would have led to the demolition of the Electric Ballroom nightclub, the United Trinity Reform Church and Buck Street market.

With no new ideas brought to the table after that, former London mayor Ken Livingstone went as far as saying he didn’t think Camden Town tube station would be “fixed in my lifetime”, and there were no firm proposals from any of the candidates before the last mayoral elections.

The delay to drawing up a new plan has meant construction work at the station, if it ever goes ahead, could run into the same time period as the HS2 development, which will see bridges in Camden Town dismantled.

The large-scale Hawley Wharf development is also scheduled to start, creating the prospect that NW1 could be strewn with building works over at least half a decade, and probably more.

London Underground station capacity manager Allan Thompson told the Town Hall’s Culture and Environment Scrutiny committee, a cross-party panel of backbench councillors, that the new station scheme would not take its lead from the aborted 2004 upgrade.

“We’ve learned the lessons from that, although it wasn’t me back then,” he said. “We think we can now get what we want by being far less intrusive and disruptive on the site.

“We’d be able to use new technology to tunnel down. We will look to see what innovative ways we can work to minimise impact.”

Mr Thompson added that the new station would provide “step free” access to all platforms and that train services would still be running throughout the construction. In his presentation, he said that the cost of doing nothing would eventually mean controlled opening at Camden Town.

Officials are working to a timetable that construction work at Holborn could begin in 2018 and Camden Town shortly after.

Councillors praised TfL for at last coming back with a new scheme but warned that above-ground development would be opposed if it bore similarities with the failed scheme.

Labour ward councillor Pat Callaghan said it was “very concerning” that Camden Town might go down to restricted hours in the week, adding: “We want you to redevelop the site. We’ve been waiting for this for 20-odd years.

“It’s wonderful that you haven’t done anything like the 2004 development.

“It was like a big spaceship just landed in Camden Town.”

Lib Dem councillor Chris Naylor said: “Clearly there is HS2 with all of the challenges it brings looming. Maybe people in Camden Town would want to make a bid to start work before Holborn, otherwise it might be another 10 years before you can get in there.”

Mr Thompson said that work at Camden Town would not be like suggested changes at Euston due to HS2, adding: “It’s not anything on the scale of what is being proposed. We can be reasonably discreet.”

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