An Urgent Appeal to Protect London’s Historic Architecture from Speculative Destruction

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London is under siege—not by war or weather, but by speculative development that threatens the soul of our city. Across the capital, historic buildings—once considered landmarks of civic pride, working-class identity, and architectural ingenuity—are being targeted for partial demolition, commercial overbuilds, or outright erasure. The justification is always the same: modernisation. But we must now ask—modernisation for whom?

As SAVE Britain’s Heritage marks its 50th anniversary with a new exhibition at the Tate Modern, it has also published a list of 50 endangered buildings that stand as symbols of what we risk losing. In London alone, the threats are mounting:

• The Grade II-listed Liverpool Street Station, one of the city’s last great Victorian railway halls, is facing redevelopment that includes the insertion of a commercial tower above its historic concourse. The Great Eastern Hotel, Grade II*-listed, would be dwarfed by a speculative glass structure serving offshore finance—not commuters, not Londoners.

• Welsh Streets, Liverpool—a historic working-class terrace saved from demolition once already—is again being eyed by developers.

• Civic buildings in South London, including historic town halls, libraries, and post offices, continue to be quietly sold, stripped, or rebranded as “mixed-use” assets with no long-term civic vision.

In each case, the pattern is clear: the public is presented with a false binary—accept destruction or accept stagnation. Yet organisations like SAVE, the Victorian Society, and countless local campaigners have shown that adaptive reuse is possible, economic, and enriching. Heritage is not a barrier to progress—it is a framework for meaningful, democratic development.

Today’s threats are more sophisticated than the mass demolitions of the 1960s. Instead of bulldozers, developers use language: “enhancement,” “activation,” “placemaking.” But at the core of these projects is often the same motive—extracting financial return by converting the city into an investment vehicle, not a lived space.

We must reject this model. The overdevelopment of commercial office towers—amid record levels of vacancy—shows that these buildings are not made for workers or communities. They are made to hold value, not life.

What You Can Do

1. Object to the Liverpool Street redevelopment now. The Victorian Society provides a step-by-step guide. Every voice counts.

2. Share stories of threatened buildings in your borough. Raise awareness and link communities to SAVE’s ongoing campaigns.

3. Demand that local councillors and MPs uphold the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)—particularly Paragraph 213, which states that “substantial harm to or loss of grade II listed buildings… should be exceptional.”

4. Push for an urban future built on restoration, not rupture. We need new policies that favour adaptive reuse, public consultation, and heritage-led regeneration.

If London becomes a place where even protected buildings are vulnerable, where speculative towers rise in conservation areas, and where public space is redefined by private capital, what kind of city are we leaving behind?

We appeal to Londoners, heritage professionals, civic leaders, and planners:
Join the resistance against misguided modernisation. Speak out. Act now.

Let us be the generation that didn’t just watch London’s past be sold off, but defended it, repurposed it, and made it part of the city’s future.