egafd.com

The Crossrail 'undergroud' railway seems to be causing more alterations to the terrain above ground than it is underground. If you go to the eastern end of Oxford Street, several of the roads leading into Soho are closed off and acres of buildings are boarded-up ready for demolition. Most of these are pubs and houses that were built in the 1670's and 80's - over 300 years ago. Go to the very end of Oxford Street and you can see that the Astoria music venue has been demolished. This was a very famous venue, where the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Nirvana, U2, and just about everyone else you can think of played at over the years. The Beatles used to have residences there where they would often play 20 shows in a month. Now it is just a wasteland where a building used to stand with lots of 'Crossrail' enscripted hoardings all round it.

Firstly, the project is not necessary because the route is already there. All Crossrail will do is duplicate existing lines but will enable you to not have to change trains. Maidenhead to Canary Wharf for example can already be done, you just have to change trains twice.

Secondly, they don't need to destroy so much of the West End - presumably this is to enable boaring equipment to get underground to dig out the tunnels and so that large ticket halls can be built above ground. The ticket halls are bound to be huge, you only have to look at the size of the stations on the Jubilee Line tube extenstion - they are the size of cathedrals inside (probably bigger) and dont need to be that big.

Thirdly, they are bound to be of the view that you need to build a station right above where the track runs, therefore you have to demolish buildings right above. Well, if they were considering building a station where Centrepoint stands (that huge 30 storey monstrosity right opposite where the Astoria used to be) would they knock that down? No. They would make alternative plans.

So the Astoria didn't HAVE to come down, nor does many acres of historial old Soho. One of the huge new Jubilee Line tube stations, built for the Jubilee Line extension 10 years ago, would either have exited right where the Canary Wharf Towers are or right under one of the three stretches of water that make up the West India Docks. They couldn't do that (demolish a tower or drain a dock) so it had to exit above ground 100 yards away. They could have done the same in Soho and knocked down less significant structures.

I am assuming that if you follow the route of Crossrail through The City, Docklands, and through the East End, and out into Essex, they will be doing similar (lots of inappropriate destruction at ground level) in those places aswell.

What do people think about all this?

i dont give a fuck as i am working on it.the amount of existing cables,pipes,sewers etc makes it awkward whereever they decide to build it.the owners of the Astoria probably got a pretty penny for the site

They could have exited where some awful 1960's structures in the West End stand. Knock some of those down instead.

Im afraid its called progress, i didnt hear to much protest when they carved Kent in two to build the high speed rail link just so people could get from London to Paris 20 minutes quicker, and of course Crossrail will all connect with this high speed route, it was all planned years ago.

I recall the Channel Tunnel Rail Link being delayed by about 20 years over fears that the Conservative Government could lose 6 seats in Kent if the building of it, along its original planned route, was allowed to go ahead. It was delayed for ages and when the Tunnel finally opened they ran trains along existing lines, slower, and eventually agreed to build the thing next to existing motorways (the M20, the M2 and the A2) thus minimising the destruction of Kent. So there were protests there and those protests were listened to. I know Kent well, even though I live in London.

max_tranmere wrote:

I know Kent well, even though I live
in London.

planeterotica wrote:

I know London well, even though i live in Kent, and most of S. London is in Kent,thats beside the point, it only took twenty years to decide the high speed link because the money wasnt in place but it was always going to happen, and i know a person who lived near Maidstone whose land was carved in two and the bulldozers were in months before they recieved a paltry ammount of compensation under compulsory purchase, i bet the Duke of Westminster negotiated a better deal for his properties in the West End !wink!

One thing I just found out is that as part of Crossrail's demolition of quite a lot of the West End, they are demolishing those hideous fountain (swimming pool looking things) outside CentrePoint. Well, it's a start, hopefully one day they will knock down CentrePoint aswell, and get rid of that awful one-way road system and the large concrete wasteland around it. The CentrePoint development has to be one of the biggest archictectural mistakes in London's history. It was apparently slated by so many people in the 1960's and 70's and is still heavily criticised today. I read that ALL of its 32 floors remained empty for years and years after it was built.

CentrePoint is a grade II listed building, giving it some protection from demolition.

Being Grade II listed does not mean it is "good" or "nice", it merely means it a good example of a particular type of building.

There are plenty of ugly buildings that have a grade listing.

Yes, Trellick Tower in North Kensington (some people refer to that area are still being Notting Hill but it is just further north) is another example of that. Trellick Tower was Europe's tallest high-rise when it was built in the late-1960's. At 32 floors it is visible for miles. It was refered to as 'Colditz in the sky' and people would rather live anywhere but there and requested, in the days when it was a council property, to be housed ANYWHERE other than it that place. Bizarelly, it is now one of the area's most desired places to live and it also has a Grade 2 listing!