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“What you need to create is some space that allows a
wider circumference of development to happen. There has been an ongoing debate about preserving the piazza between King’s Cross and St Pancras because the land is worth so much. But they were right to keep it because it allows St Pancras to flow better with the local area.”
Developing areas The scheme at Barking is similarly ambitious, involving plans not only for the station but also the town itself. Although Barking is well connected with rail services to
The refurbishment of Barking station is intended to provide office space in tandem with leisure and retail areas.
London and the building itself is grade II listed, the station itself is unwelcoming and the surrounding area is underdeveloped, according to Paul Reynolds, a senior urban designer at Atkins. There is an opportunity to clean up the concourse, taking out poor-quality shops and removing advertising hoardings that block the windows, and to refine the area outside allowing better access for pedestrians and cyclists. At the same time, the station’s refurbishment could be used to spur development of the wider area. “The regeneration masterplan for the area around the station is designed to develop a stronger office market,
improve the quality of its retail stock and address areas of strategic focus,” says Reynolds. “The idea is to provide office space in tandem with retail and leisure areas. There is very little to do in Barking town centre in the evening and the population is quite transient as things stand. The regeneration is part of a plan to attract a demographic with a higher degree of permanence to the town.” The blueprint for Euston does something similar, although on a larger scale. For example, it creates a new entrance to the station, rationalises the bus station out front and improves disability access. It also takes the underground entrance out of the railway station so that Tube passengers no longer clog up the main concourse. “There’s a huge opportunity to have a look at the whole
area,” says Reynolds. Atkins produced the plan on behalf of Sydney and London Properties, which owns tower blocks at the front of the station. “There’s plenty of scope for masterplanning that would come about from the opportunities initiated by the station development.”
Finding the funding The obvious problem with the station development-as- regeneration model, however, is that it is more expensive than a station-only project. Moreover, regenerating a whole area inevitably involves a larger range of stakeholders, including landowners, transport authorities, regional development bodies, councils and mayors.
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