Felicity Kendal and Trevor Eve join fight to stop Crossrail station on King’s Road

 

TV stars Felicity Kendal and Trevor Eve are backing a campaign to stop a £1 billion Crossrail 2 station being built in Chelsea.

The Good Life and Waking The Dead actors have joined about 2,500 residents and business owners in opposing plans for a major stop on the King’s Road. The campaign group No Crossrail in Chelsea warns that it will lead to years of disruption and ruin the character of one of London’s best loved “villages”.

Kendal said: “If a Crossrail station is built here it will destroy Chelsea as we know it. We are not opposed to Crossrail 2, we just don’t want a station in Chelsea. We are well served by two Underground stations and five bus routes. We don’t need a huge Crossrail station that will cost a fortune and just create yet another cloned high street. We love Chelsea the way it is.”

Eve said: “These Crossrail stations aren’t like Tube stations. They are huge structures, with shops, bars, restaurants and offices. A station on the fire station site will destroy the streetscape of the King’s Road, will cost London over £1 billion and will destroy the charm of Chelsea.” No decisions have been taken on the location of the stations on the £25 billion north/south route originally known as the Chelsea-Hackney line but Transport for London is launching a major consultation in the autumn.

The former fire station site about halfway along King’s Road has been earmarked for Crossrail 2 development, but an alternative location nearer the river has been ruled out. If no station is built in Chelsea trains will pass from Victoria to Clapham Junction without stopping.

One transport source said: “The campaigners might be opposed but I suspect most people will be pretty puzzled if the Chelsea-Hackney route no longer stops in Chelsea.”

Greg Hands, the Tory MP for Chelsea and Fulham, said he had asked Mayor Boris Johnson to look at the possibility of alternative station sites at Imperial Wharf or Fulham Broadway. Chris Lenon, chairman of the No Crossrail in Chelsea campaign, said: “Our campaign is the voice of Chelsea. In just four weeks the response has been overwhelming. When people hear about these plans, they are appalled. And rightly so.”

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