ENDURING POWER OF LANDMARKS

It’s (more or less) official – the lovely turretty Co-op bank building and its beautiful but grafittii-ed neighbour the former Angel Picture Theatre have been saved from the wreckers ball. TfL have re-located their Crossrail2 focus to the other side of Islington High Street.

It looks very likely that the Crossrail2 station will be built on the site of RBS Bank, TfL planners confirmed at their recent meeting with angel.london businesses.

The proposed £27bn link between Surrey and Hertfordshire will follow plans for the Chelsea to Hackney line and thread its way carefully up from Euston between the British Library cellars, reservoir in Claremont Square, the basements of recently built developments on Pentonville Road, the back of Chapel Market along White Lion Street, with the station entrance right next door to the tube. It will open in 2030, run 30 trains per hour in the three-hour peak time in both directions, carrying 270,000 people.

“TfL has done the decent thing, listened to all our objections, and decided not to demolish the listed buildings everyone loves,” says architect and angel.london board member David Gibson. “We’re still in what they call the ‘safeguarding’ process where they’re considering plans and nothing is fixed, but the design process is starting shortly so there is no change expected.”

“We’re delighted to hear local landmarks won’t be destroyed but anxious that TfL are sensitive to the interests of businesses at the Angel,” says Christine Lovett.

“We shall be looking very carefully at pedestrian and traffic flow, and seeing if this is an opportunity to improve the current crossings on City and Pentonville Roads. It’s our job to make sure that businesses benefit at every stage.”

For a copy of the Crossrail2 presentation TfL gave to businesses, contact christine@angel.london

PS Thanks to Double Tree by Hilton Hotel Islington for generously hosting our TfL event, and providing delicious refreshments.