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| London Update January 2007 Crossrail Awaits a Green Signal Crossrail Awaits a Green Signal Crossrail has taken one step further in its slow progress to being built. The project, which would be the largest public transport project in London in a century, is an east-west railway that would pass through tunnels between Paddington and Whitechapel, under Oxford Street, Farringdon and Liverpool Street, accommodating trains of national mainline size - considerably larger than those on existing tube lines. In the west, it will run to Heathrow, with a branch to Maidenhead, Berkshire. In the east, Crossrail will fork, emerging at Stratford and continuing to Shenfield in Essex, while the other branch will tunnel to the Isle of Dogs, with a station on the north side of the Canary Wharf estate, and carry on via Custom House to Abbey Wood. A station at Woolwich is currently being considered. When completed, Crossrail will offer a service not unlike the Paris RER lines, with trains every 4 minutes in the central tunnel. It is considered vital by The City, planners and Mayor Ken Livingstone to unsnarl London’s congested rail network, which is already operating at near capacity.
Crossrail has been in planning since 1989. New railways require an act of Parliament to be passed, and an earlier Crossrail Bill was rejected there in 1994. Last November, the current Crossrail Bill was re-introduced to Parliament and is expected to pass later this year, allowing construction to start. Further in December, the final deadline for objections passed. Crossrail has been beset by other problems. There have been concerns that tunnelling may undermine buildings, and in some areas like Spitalfields, the construction alone has threatened to overwhelm local communities. Currently, the biggest outstanding problem is securing funding - Crossrail will cost over £15 billion, to be met by public and private funds, and no public commitment to funding has yet been made. However, gains to the UK economy of £30 billion have been forecast. With London’s economy set to expand, there is no realistic alternative that offers a solution to the transport demands forecast. Crossrail would take six or seven years to construct, and on the current timescale, construction should take place between 2008 and 2015. With the Crossrail Bill almost certain to get assent, the chances of this happening are now probably better than evens. East London is a Global Contemporary Art Club East London can now claim to be the centre of London’s contemporary art scene. Of all contemporary art shows listed in London by newexhibitions.com in January, fifty-six are in the West End, while sixty are in the East End, clustering in Hoxton and Bethnal Green. These are largely in private galleries, which are expanding as the global art market booms. The Arts Council estimates that UK galleries trade £500 million annually. The art scene affects a local property market in several ways. High-profile public venues like the Tate Modern in Southwark are funded partly as big urban regeneration catalysts. However, regeneration starts at street level when artists and private galleries move into an area, often taking over derelict premises to rehabilitate. An art scene makes an area chic, boosting the local residential market. Finally, art venues attract support industries from cafés and bars to hotels. Because London is now second only to New York in the global art market, these amenities service international dealers as well as tourists. The traditional home of London’s modern art market is Mayfair and St James. Cutting-edge YBAs (Young British Artists) put East London on the map when Damien Hirst curated the Freeze Show in a Surrey Docks warehouse in 1988. Artists settled in the east when property was cheap which in turn attracted galleries such as ‘BritArt’ that became an international phenomenon. When Jay Joplin opened his White Cube gallery in Hoxton in 2000, it confirmed that the serious collectors had arrived in East London. Contemporary galleries have since spread out from Hoxton to Hackney and Bethnal Green, while the Tate Modern is currently attracting them to Southwark. As contemporary art continues to boom, expect to see new creative zones stretching up the Kingsland Road into Dalston, while Bermondsey is well positioned to become a new art hotspot south of the river. The following articles are available on our website for your perusal:
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