GCR fails in bid for lottery money

I've not seen the latest news posted on here yet, so apologies if I've missed it. The GCR plc has recently resubmitted its bid for funding for the proposed museum at Leicester North - a summary here.

Frustrated, as most of us are, by the apparent disregard for the heritage of the infrastructure and complete lack of transparency as far as the volunteers are concerned, an alternative proposal has been put together by one of our S&T - volunteer - colleagues (here). You can get a measure of the research that's gone into this, but I can assure you that it's only scratching the surface - there's an enormous pool of knowledge and experience that the railway hasn't consulted. The words below are the designer's own...

I've also tried to copy below an image from each proposal, giving an overview. I'm not sure whether that'll work though! If not, both can be found on the GCR's official Facebook page, the latter hidden away in the comments on the GCR's post.

Does anyone have any comments on either of the two proposals? I know that there's a lot of disquiet within the railway (not, by any means, all related to this business), but I'd be interested to find out what the general feeling is from the world outside!

 

Quick look I'd agree the "Red Hill" option would add more to the Heritage aspect than the futuristic one above.

However on a slight tangent, do either of these ideas leave room for any future extension to Leicester Abbey? I realise you have other projects on the go, but is a Southern Extension well and truly dead?

 

Weren't the initial, lavish, station plans for Leicester North scrapped because of the presence of a high pressure water or gas main? Can't remember which.

 

Intial plans were for a turntable at Leicester North, think there might have been similar problems with it's placement. Instead they ruined the car park at Quorn & Woodhouse by running a track in the centre to the turntable.

 

I'd hazard a guess that the amount of funding available to develop a combined museum and station site would allow for moving the high pressure pipe, whereas coming up with the money for a station on its own as well as moving the pipe would be out of reach for the railway.

 

Presumably a modern steel framed building is considerably cheaper, and if your going to have a contemporary structure on the GCR then Leicester North is the place to have it. If the design is good with plenty of natural light then it's fine with me.

Chris

 

As would have been the glass and chrome monstrosity originally planned to go at Bridgnorth. Fortunately the howls of derision penetrated the planners deaf ears and a more fitting design was substituted. Does the GCR not have a measure of taste to propose something more in keeping with a heritage environment?

 

Leicester North is hardly comparable with Bridgnorth and already has a modern structure in the form of the Greenacres building.

 

Indeed so as witness "Milestones" at Basingstoke. Difficult to tell from the sketches but the "traditional" design seems woefully uninspired as well.

PH

 

http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/news/#13599

See HLF trustees are due to visit this month. After visiting this weekend, Leicester North certainly needs something to create interest and such a museum would work well especially if the weather is as cold as it was.

Still interested to know if Leicester Abbey proposal is dead?