Oli Marshall, campaigns director at C20 Society, discusses the coming of age of Waterloo's former Eurostar terminal, and why now's the time to list it.
As we keep being told, the 1990s are back.
In fashion, music, politics — but what about architecture? The newly launched Coming of Age campaign by C20 Society – the national charity that fights to protect Britain's modern architectural and design heritage — is a mix-tape of the best buildings of the recent past, as they cross the 30 year threshold. At this point they become old enough to considered for listing. This is the term for buildings of architectural significant and historic interest, that are added to the national register and afforded statutory protection.
Rolling back the clock to 1994, Definitely Maybe and Parklife ushered in Britpop, Dummy popularised trip-hop, a young turk called Anthony Blair was elected leader of the Labour Party, St John's restaurant turned bone marrow into haute cuisine, Four Weddings broke box office records, and those 'big money balls' heralded the start of the National Lottery. The highlights reel is a (very) familiar one.
In the world of architecture, Channel Four's new headquarters (by Richard Rogers and Partners) was a high-tech televisual citadel in the quiet backstreets of Westminster, while on the other side of the Thames, a glamorous, glazed gateway to the continent opened in Waterloo.
"The next station, is Paris Gare-du-Nord"
As the first Eurostar service pulled out of Waterloo International Station in November 1994, European capital cities were suddenly on the doorstep, closer by train than Manchester or Edinburgh. The opening of the Channel Tunnel was the culmination of the 20th century’s biggest single civil engineering and political project. Physically connecting Britain and mainland Europe for the first time in their histories, newspapers at the time declaring: "No longer an Island".
Creating a streamlined terminal on a heavily constrained and irregularly shaped central London site – described as being like 'pulling a sock on a foot' — the International Terminal at Waterloo facilitated journeys for 15 million international passengers each year at its peak, and is now recognised as an iconic transport interchange and masterpiece of engineering. Architect Nicholas Grimshaw's ingenious telescopic glass and steel superstructure — inspired by Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace of 1851 — was a suitably contemporary monument to the new railway age, similar in scope and function to an airport terminal. Admiration for the building is reflected in the high profile awards it received at the time, including the RIBA President's Building of the Year (forerunner to the Stirling Prize) and the Mies van der Rohe Award for European Architecture. Grimshaw has since described it as his most important project, for what is now one of Britain's biggest architectural practices.
Eurostar's shift of operations to St Pancras Station in 2007 left the terminal at Waterloo mothballed for more than a decade, and prompted C20 Society's first unsuccessful attempt to have the station listed, back in 2016. The modified platforms came back into regular use for regional train services from 2018, and while the former check-in, security and departures lounge areas in the undercroft have been reprofiled to become The Sidings shopping centre, the station's signature feature remains: that elegant, curvaceous high-tech roof structure. Now an uplifting backdrop to the grind of the daily commute, rather than a sleek departure point to the continent.
Station to station
In the mid-2020s, London’s grand old terminus stations are once again a heritage battle ground. Debate continues to rage over the redevelopment of Euston station to accommodate HS2, as the current station — once a beacon of post-war modernity — becomes ever more overcrowded, unsafe, and decrepit. In the City, the shameless vandalism proposed to the Grade II listed Liverpool Street Station has united heritage campaigners, environmental activists and passengers alike.
While a future masterplan is also in development for Waterloo — reassuringly, led once again by Grimshaw — the former Eurostar terminal has settled comfortably into its new domestic role, and thankfully seems safe from the spectre of harmful redevelopment for now.
So next time you're battling rush hour crowds on the 7:48 service, take the time to glance up and appreciate the universal rectangular glazing that overlaps the fish scales, and those brilliant blue arched trusses set against the sky, curving away to some distant vanishing point. This is heroic engineering, mechanistic yet organic, and the equal of any of the great Victorian railway halls — Paddington, York, King's Cross, St Pancras, you name it.
With the station now eligible for listing and the bicentenary of the birth of the railway coming up in 2025, what better time to recognise the wonder of Waterloo?
C20 Society submitted a renewed listing application for the former Waterloo International Terminal in December 2024 as part of their Coming of Age campaign. This is now with Historic England, awaiting assessment.
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