Southwark Tube Station Listed

[stuving]

Announcement from English Heritage:

https://historicengland.org.uk/whats-new/in-your-area/london/southwark-tube-station-listed/

Southwark Tube Station Listed​

The 1990s building is recognised for its architectural and historic importance.
Published 13 November 2025

Southwark Underground Station in London has been listed at Grade II by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the advice of Historic England.

The station was built between 1994 and 1999 as part of the Jubilee Line Extension to designs by architects MacCormac Jamieson Prichard and engineers Babtie and L G Mouchel & partners.

 

[Farigiraf]

There are plans to build a highrise on top of the station - in fact I think the station was designed to accommodate this if it were to happen. Will this still be possible following the listing?

 

[SteveHFC]

There's been a discussion on this on the staff intranet at TfL this week - the answer is apparently that yes it will still be possible.

 

[Thirteen]

They're only building on top on Southwark Station so it won't be an issue.

 

[Pegpilot]

Good news that some of the architecture on the Jubilee line extension (JLE) has been recognised.

And the building on top of the station raft has all the hallmarks of the then project sponsor, the late John Fawkner. Through his UITP work, he'd studied similar schemes in Hong Kong and further afield as a means of injecting secondary revenue (site lease income) into the railway's coffers.

And of course, the JLE was built by the so-called Hong Kong Mafia, so this methodology was second nature to them.

Only question is, why has nothing happened 25 years on ?

 

[The Pelican]

I'm really glad to see this station getting listed- probably the third most impressive on the Jubilee line after Canary Wharf and Westminster- and an interesting series of ideas from classical and art deco architecture, like the giant arches the escalators are in, and the Holden-style entrance at the Blackfriars Road end.

 

[boiledbeans2]

[...]

And of course, the JLE was built by the so-called Hong Kong Mafia, so this methodology was second nature to them.

[...]

Why's that? Were all the architects involved in Hong Kong projects prior to JLE?

 

[stuving]

This is the official list entry. It's quite long, of course, but I can't see an explicit statement about how anything built on top of it would impact its listing (or vice versa). The only mention I can find is this paragraph, confirming they knew this was planned:

EXTERIOR: above ground, the special interest of the ticket hall is limited to the curved entrance portal, the building being intended to act as the base for an air-rights development above. The entrance takes the form of a tall, wide concrete frame, segmental in plan, addressing the road junction. Suspended beneath is a steel and opaque glass canopy which curves downwards over the descending entrance steps. A projecting London Underground roundel is supported on an arm cantilevered out from a lozenge shaped pier clad in opaque glass, which runs through the centre of the entrance composition.

 

[Pegpilot]

Yes indeed Beansy, the Project Director was a chap called Russell Black, who cut his teeth on the MTR construction, and some of his senior team from HK came with him

 

[Mikey C]

This is the official list entry. It's quite long, of course, but I can't see an explicit statement about how anything built on top of it would impact its listing (or vice versa). The only mention I can find is this paragraph, confirming they knew this was planned:

The listing won't be for the exterior anyway, which is completely unexceptional, and would be unaffected by a sensitive building placed on top. The joys of the JLE architecture are down below ground, stations like Southwark, Canary Wharf and Westminster are masterpieces.

 

[bluegoblin7]

The listing won't be for the exterior anyway, which is completely unexceptional, and would be unaffected by a sensitive building placed on top. The joys of the JLE architecture are down below ground, stations like Southwark, Canary Wharf and Westminster are masterpieces.

The Listing (linked in your quoted reply) explicitly includes the Ticket Hall on Blackfriars Road:

the special interest of the ticket hall is limited to the curved entrance portal, the building being intended to act as the base for an air-rights development above

...and it is clear that above-site development would be unlikely to be prevented provided that it doesn't impact on the existing building, and that any future development wouldn't automatically become Listed.

 

[Mikey C]

The Listing (linked in your quoted reply) explicitly includes the Ticket Hall on Blackfriars Road:

But it's not the external aspect of the ticket hall building which is remarkable. It's not as if it's a visual masterpiece, like the Holden stations on the Piccadilly Line for example

 

[bluegoblin7]

It may not have been a consideration in the decision to list, but it is very much a part of the listing and as such is bound by the same conditions.