Grade II listed Farringdon station building was built in 1865 and modified in 1922. This case study outlines the heritage features that were preserved during its redevelopment, the design challenges faced and best practice for future projects.
Protecting and enhancing cultural heritage formed one of the Thameslink Programme’s nine sustainability objectives and for the Farringdon Station the most significant impact of the work was due to the importance of the building’s heritage. The building is Grade II listed, but railway stations in Greater London are under the direction of English Heritage (EH) and therefore the determination process is the same as for a Grade I listed building. The work that was carried out with regards to the Historic Environment helped the project to score 100% in this section of the CEEQUAL submission whilst also setting standards for best practice across the programme.
Firstly, new planning permission and listed building consent for the listed parts of the site were required for any new additional work scope or changes to the approved design. It was necessary to obtain three very significant additional consents in the course of the project for the Turnmill Street concourse, changes to the new Integrated Ticket Hall façade and for the extensive works to the existing London Underground station building.
By July 2011 300 planning submissions were identified for the Farringdon project (including applications to discharge planning conditions). Only 65 of these submissions were related to the Transport and Works Act Order planning and listed building consents and the rest were as a result of subsequent changes in scope, design and temporary works and a project workload and resource requirement that was not originally fully anticipated. As a result the project recruited a town planning and heritage specialist resources into its consents team, in addition to those originally envisaged.
In addition to this the project programme was extremely challenging due to delays in the completion of the design, the timescales for obtaining these planning requirements, including three new significant planning and listed building applications, and severe compression of the project programme. In response, the consents team implemented best practice from specialist experience of other recent major heritage and railway projects including, in particular, Channel Tunnel Rail Link St Pancras, Crossrail and Kings Cross.
The consents team was also responsible for compiling statements of significance relating to the importance of the heritage fabric, undertaking impact assessments and working with the contractor to write method statements, all in support of the listed building consent applications. This was undertaken by the Farringdon Station project as best practice and has subsequently become a requirement of Planning Policy Statement 5.