CHARING CROSS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 1, 1 July 1925, Page 3

CHARING CROSS

FAMOUS STATION TO BE MOVED

HUGE SOUTH OF THAMES RAIL* . WAY TEBMINUS. ■"• • "■

Will Charing; Crots' Kailway Station b» moved to the south nide of the Thames at a cost o£ £30,000,000? Discussions have ' pasted for over twenty years. . Definite aotion ; in. regard to the prbpo»ai has now been taken. A sub-committee of the London Council has decided to approach the Southern .Railway authorities and ask for a conference on the matter, though no definite decision has been reached as to what actual form the scheme '. should fcake. Originally it was estimated' that the undertaking, including the building of b! new* road bridge, would cost about, £15,0.00,000. The cost now wpuld J be a great deal above that figure.V Sir Herbert' Walker, general manager - of the Southern Railway, discussed the scheme # from a London traffic point of view with a "Daily Chronicle" representative, having first confirmed'the fact that : the L.C.C. hud approached tho company 'on the subject, and asked them to attend - an informal conference., ' "'"*,■;, I ■'.'■■'", "UntiK we actually know what form' their proposals will take," he e»id,. "we cannot say what.'pur attitude will be.If a.-new bridge has to be built in the Charing Cross street as a future remedy for present congestion. I think three alternative proposals will have to be^"discussed. With regard to the scheme for utilising the existing railway bridge;for road traffic, and /transferring CharingCross Station to the south side of tho rivor, I should say it might take anything from five to tcii years to do this, and tho cost might bo aa much as £30,000,000^ \ "Tho second alternative provides; for the recoilstructioti of tho'existing. Cliatinj; Cross railway bridge and'tho'supcrimpos- ■■ ing o£ a wido road bridgp on tho top of '■. it, leaving* tho railway bridge underneath. TJiis scheme has tilrcaßy been discussed in public, and is a proposal most favoured by Ct-ptain Swinton. It would mean that th© * bridge would hava a connection .with the Strand at the Golden Gross Hote!, and another connection would croas the Strand by a high-level -'.bridge ploping down to ground again near the Nurse Cavell monument. This would, of course, mean, doing away with tho Charing. Cross Hotel, ana the present station would then liecome more or less an underground one. At the fork o£ the two roads I have just mentioned a wide plaza would be constructed over the station. Such an undertaking would require much time nnd money, and >). would completely change the aspect of on» of the most famous sites in central London. . ' ... •. ■ '.-■'. "That an entirely' now road bridge.' should bo built acros3 the river bet\veen: the oxistin? railway bridge and Waterloo Bridge is the third alternative. My "view is that a frosh bridge built straight across would only add greatly to the congestion, ■ because it would mean traffic pouring into the 9lrcady_ congested Tork road, from wherjcß, vehicles would have "to make their way into cither Waterloo road or Westminster Bridge road. ' . '"Vte could not more a large terminals staiion ■ like Charing Cross, into, which : sotreihiujr Iil:o 35,000 or 40,000 pooplo pour each .day,, without careful thought., as to what iho alternative would mean. At ■: present, naturally, anything, that I say must.bo regarded in the light of con- - IjeotuKi, but I think what would, liappen „ in those circumstaiices would be this: We shonl-i turn Waterloo' •Junction fitation into a We tonnimis, info which would be run-.aJI. the tvaius on .the- South-Eastern -- ■aectiqri, which now so f. o Charing Cross, and'it, would have to bo connected with •■ the present; Watorloo Station now that '" these trunk sen-ices aro'ooth part of the Southern Railway.".. ■