How the new Camden Town underground station could look

• THE letter from the three Liberal Democrat candidates for Camden Town with Primrose Hill ward, objecting to the proposed reconstruction of the tube station, is nonsense and merely trying to get themselves some publicity before the election, (TfL’s plans for restructuring Camden Town station will destroy the whole character of the area, April 12).

Everyone knows that Camden Town station is hopelessly overcrowded at weekends with tourists and visitors to the market and Camden Lock, resulting in the entrance being closed with exit only during the afternoon.

Even when access is available before closing it around midday, it requires using a long spiral staircase, hopeless for buggy users and the elderly.

The earlier rejected plans for rebuilding are now irrelevant. They were on an unsuitable site, whereas the new proposals, which are well supported by most users, involve an additional entrance / exit in a different place, to relieve the existing one, and are cleverly located so that they lead directly out onto a side road with access to parts of the market.

The so-called “iconic” buildings are a closed school rapidly becoming derelict and a short street of houses. There is nothing “iconic” about any of them, and the whole area would benefit tremendously from a tidying up and refreshing.

The buildings proposed above the entrance naturally have to accommodate flats so that the costs of rebuilding can be covered and would provide extra housing. They are, I believe, designed to be partially set back so as not to dominate the area, so nothing like the awful Swiss Cottage tower which now seems inevitable.

When I attended the early consultation displays, which asked for questions and comments, I emphasised the need for social / affordable housing to be included in the plans, and the authors of the critical letter would be better employed pressing for this rather than yet again trying to delay the extra entrance to the station, the need for which grows more and more desperate every month.

The overcrowding is already becoming dangerous, hence the need for temporary closures at weekends. To delay the plans even more would be disastrous – we can’t wait another 12 years.

JOHN STRATTON
Thurlow Road, NW3