NEWSLETTER Summer 2014 Number 341 Registered Charity 274082 MARYLEBONE STATION CELEBRATING 30 YEARS SINCE THREATENED CLOSURE
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THE ST MARYLEBONE SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Summer 2014 Number 341 www.stmarylebonesociety.org Registered Charity 274082 MARYLEBONE STATION CELEBRATING 30 YEARS SINCE THREATENED CLOSURE Marylebone Station now. Photo: Mike Wood. This summer Chiltern Railways will London. The report also stated that •There would not be a reduction in celebrate 30 years since Marylebone terminating coaches at Marylebone would coaches on the roads, Station was saved from closure. have the benefit of reducing coach traffic at •The station buildings must be Listed. In the early 1980s Marylebone Station Victoria Coach Station. Following an earlier proposal to List presented a sorry sight. There had been Horrified at the proposal, the Marylebone Station and the Great Central Hotel the DofE had answered: little BR investment in Marylebone’s St Marylebone Society began an intensive trains and facilities, and the 1970s campaign against the coach station and ‘We have now inspected these buildings recession, coupled with high fares busway, writing to a wide range of inside and out, but have concluded I am controlled by the GLC and LT, took its toll organisations to garner support. Pre- afraid that none of them qualifies for listing and passenger numbers started falling. BR computers, this represented a as a building of special or architectural was losing money on Marylebone’s considerable administrative workload and historic interest.’ commuter routes, such that in 1983 only 6,000 passengers alighted daily at the SMS coordinated correspondence and Correspondence ensued between the St Marylebone. Therefore, when the regular meetings to plan their strategy. Marylebone Society and the Rt Hon National Bus Company commissioned a They attacked the idea of the station Patrick Jenkin MP, Sec of State for the study for a new coach terminus at closure and NBC Coach terminus arguing: Environment, the GLC, WCC and local Councillors. They also involved national Marylebone Station, BR and Westminster •It would cause hardship for local organisations with similar objectives, such saw a possible solution to their problems. residents and commuters, It was published in July 1983 and as SAVE, The Georgian Group, The Civic •A coach terminus would be detrimental concluded that the new terminus would Trust, SPAB and the Victorian Society. take 250,000 coaches off existing roads to the environment and the Dorset The SMS capitalised on their links to and by concreting over the tracks it would Square Conservation Area, neighbouring amenity societies, such as utilise the existing rail tunnels to create a •A busway in the tunnels was technically the Regent’s Park Conservation Area ‘busway’, as a fast link into Central unfeasible, Advisory Committee (RPCAAC) and Continued overleaf. the St John’s Wood Society. Utilising this those elected to represent their views. network of well-connected groups who The SMS collected detailed policy included, the Crown Estate and the information, scrutinised timetables and Camden Civic Society, they brought the fares, and listed legal and technical matter to the attention of many people in reasons supporting their objections to power at the D of E and in Parliament. prove that closure of the routes would be unfeasible and cause hardship. Leading the protest locally was the late Sam Briddes, a keen railway supporter What gave the campaign its strength, and what was the significant contribution of and train enthusiast. He distributed a Marylebone Station in the 1980s. flyer to all the residents in Boston Place the SMS, was its ability to link people and and started a resident’s petition and sub connect directly with those in positions of November 1985. Effectively writing their group, ‘Bostonians against Buses!’ Sam authority. Under the umbrella of the SMS own planning brief for the site, in what is also had many contacts along the lines an array of objectors grouped together perhaps the first case of ‘Neighbourhood leading out from Marylebone and across the social and political spectrum; Planning’ in Marylebone. They envisaged especially with the Aylesbury & District from the aristocracy to NUR members, the site used for housing and community Passengers Association. Together they from local Labour councillors to those in facilities and launched their plan with shared information, conducted their own the Conservative home counties, as panache by staging a ‘Monopoly Board’ passenger surveys and started to get summed up by Sam Briddes: event in Dorset Square. railway men involved, with NUR General ‘What we have to remember is that the fight The SMS’s activities and commitment Secretary, Jimmy Knapp writing to the for the retention of the railway will have the grew over four years of intensive SMS in support of retaining rail services support of many thousands of individuals, campaigning to Save Marylebone Station, and jobs. together with every local authority bar the and this determination is characteristic of It is interesting to note that the SMS were Westminster City Council –yes, the the Society and its membership, who Conservative shire counties are joining pro-active and well ahead of BR plans, as believe in self-determination and the right forces with ASLEF for this fight!’ much campaigning activity took place to protect one’s neighbourhood. some three years before BR posted the Westminster’s planning brief for Prolonging the consultation period, asking Notice initiating closure of the station on Marylebone Station was released in April questions in high places and creating 15 March 1984. This official decision 1985 and the SMS formulated detailed diversions brought about advantages with prompted keen interest from the national comments on every line of the brief, time, such that when SMS Chairman, press and interviews on LBC Radio and a cajoled local councillors on board and Carolyn Keen, wrote to The Times in TV documentary spread the debate to a requested permission for a deputation to Spring 1986 she could state, ‘16,000 wider audience. Many people joined the speak at the Planning Committee passengers now use the station every day’ fight to save Marylebone Station, with one meeting. The SMS also started lobbying and highlight the role of the station as exception …Westminster Council. politicians and joined forces with destination for Steam and Rail, a residents in Victoria, to get the coach sentiment echoed by Steam Railway terminus out of Central London magazine which declared, ‘Marylebone: A altogether, suggesting it would be better Recipe for Success’. placed on the recently completed M25. They managed to get David Mitchell Passenger numbers had increased with (Under-Secretary of State DofT) to agree the introduction of the Capital Card and but despite this and widespread protests, BR’s plans to divert trains to Baker Street in July 1985 Westminster Council now seemed impossible due to increased approved their own Planning Brief for capacity across the public transport Marylebone Station in the 1970s. Marylebone Station, although with network. The tide had turned and on ‘At a committee meeting on 11 June 1984, conditions attached to the future coach 30 April 1986 BR officially announced that it was determined that, subject to station use. Local Councillor Jo Hegarty Marylebone Station would remain open. decried their decision, stating, ‘When the conditions, Westminster Council in The NBC commissioned a new report into Council goes out to consultation, it doesn’t principle: an alternative coach terminus site at mean consultation. It’s largely a sham.’ •Raised no objections to closure of the Paddington, which gave rise to a new station and withdrawal of BR services To counter the Westminster Planning amenity society, still thriving today, brief, the SMS and associated resident’s Paddington Residents Against the Coach •Were willing to consider proposals for groups began suggesting alternative uses Terminus (PRACT), but that’s another a coach station. for the site; from a steam railway centre to story. Marylebone Station was saved and Consequently, Westminster’s Planning a specialist-shopping destination designed today the St Marylebone Society Department started to draw up a planning by SMS member and architect John continues to support the conservation and brief for the site assuming station closure. Prizeman. One group in particular was improvement of this historic station, proactive, the Paddington Federation of which is a success for Chiltern Railways Dismayed at this stance by Westminster Residents and Tenants Associations and has become the hub of our Council, the SMS responded with (PFTRA), gaining £1,650 GLC funding to neighbourhood. determined lobbying of their local submit an alternative planning application Conservative councillors, angry with for the Marylebone Station site in Gaby Higgs 2 A F U N N Y T H I N G H A P P E N E D O N T H E W A Y T O T H E F O R U M Regent’s Park was also removed from the designated Marylebone NA. This was a surprise because somewhere along the line in these tortuous negotiations WCC had encouraged us to include Regent’s Park in our NA. The reason for exclusion of Regent’s Park in the NA Designation Notice was simply that: “Regent’s Park is not considered to be part of Marylebone but a separate geographic entity in its own right.” The final surprise was that our area was designated as a Business Area (as opposed to a Residential Area). The practical consequence of this is that there will need to be two referendums on the Neighbourhood Plan – one for residents and one for businesses. If these two referendums go in opposite directions, WCC gets a casting vote on whether or not to accept the Plan. The next step is for us to formally constitute the Forum and to apply to be designated the Neighbourhood Forum for the Marylebone NA. Mike Wood Figure 1: Officially designated Marylebone Neighbourhood Area. In our update on Neighbourhood One of these, “Fitzrovia West”, Planning last summer we reported that consisted of a triangle of land within the residents of Church Street and St Westminster roughly between the John’s Wood had applied to become underground stations of Great Portland separate Neighbourhood Areas (NAs).