Drummond Street traders are devastated to learn they will be stuck next to a construction site for even longer

HS2 rail chiefs are facing demands to hand over to the community the barren wasteland it has created with demolition work for the crisis-hit project.

Ideas include grassing over the giant hole in the ground around Euston station and creating dozens of football pitches. The calls come after work on the multi-billion pound project ground to an embarrassing halt amid spiralling costs, and loud hints that it may now never reach the terminus at all.

Traders in Drummond Street – famous throughout London for its run of quality curry restaurants – say they can not survive if they are left with a building site splitting the street in two, with footfall already falling and trade down. After years of disruption already, they had been pinning their hopes on a new station being completed in the next few years.

Land around their businesses was seized under compulsory purchase orders to allow for the new train link to Birmingham, a move which led to the flattening of several businesses including a hotel and the award-­winning Bree Louise pub

But now the council and HS2 are looking at how the mothballed site could get what is known as a “meantime” use – projects set up on a temporary basis and while the wait goes on for a final answer on HS2’s fate,

The New Journal has now seen documents showing large areas of land that could be primed for community use.

Several Drummond Street traders have signed a list of demands for “meanwhile” uses for Cobourg Street and Cardington Street, adding: “This could include a seating area to the south of Drummond Street and a recreational area in the area to the north, funded by HS2.

“Whilst Regent Place was being developed, British Land grassed over an area to be used for football. HS2 should do the same. This would help to compensate for the loss of St James’ Gardens.”

St James’ Gardens was the only public park in the area which was also bulldozed to make way for the railway that might never be.

Despite seven years of demolition work, HS2 chiefs have only just realised their plans are too expensive and have gone back to the drawing board.

Redoan Pasha, who lives in North Gower Street and runs the Taste of India restaurant in Drummond Street, has watched his five children grow up in a devastated area.

“I sold my house and I bought my business and it used to be very good,” he said. “But after this rubbish people came from HS2, and everything has gone rubbish. My rent is £110,000, my rate is £106,000 and for the last 10 years I haven’t slept. I am going to have a heart attack.”

Mr Pasha added: “If you are a customer you would not come to this rubbish place. Many people have been here for 30 for 40 years and we were very happy. “

The restaurant traders had already suffered a lot from the closures of the Thistle and Ibis hotels, which were on land compulsory purchased by the Department for Transport.

Harish Maguty, who runs India Spice, said: “We need no more disturbance. They keep digging it up now and then, here and there, because they need to move the utilities.

“People have to go all the way to Camden to come back to us. HS2 had promised to look after us but they never did.”

Ahmad Faisal, manager at the Drummond Villas restaurant, said: “We have had hope for eight or nine years that when HS2 was done it would be very nice around here. But now we feel completely hopeless.”

And Israb Miah, manager at the Ravi Shankar restaurant who grew up in the street, said: “The business rates have been big. My place was £44,000 now that’s gone to £66,000. The government said they can’t do anything – well HS2 should do something for us. We have the hotels disappearing and the digging of the roads. People used to queue here at lunch, now some days there is no one.”

Oli Uddin, chairman of the Drummond Street Traders who runs an opticians, said: “The delay is disastrous. We need at least part of the work to be done as quickly as possible.

“We need to pressure them to remove hoardings. They keep coming back and closing roads for the utilities – that needs to stop.It is a relief to have the sound of the works stopped now. It is back to how it was then. But it was buzzing in a different way before.”

HS2 is holding a “meanwhile uses walkabout” with community leaders on May 2. It announced a “pause” in work last month for at
least two years.

HS2 documents shared this week about the potential uses for the land said that “where possible, HS2 will return some places back for the community to use during the pause”, adding: “The Euston Partners are exploring options to create an investable proposition, using commercial elements to help fund and support more community led facilities.”

Euston Square Gardens – where dozens of trees were axed in one of the most polluted roads in the country – is being earmarked for a “pop-up street market”.

Slides from a steering group meeting this week said “where possible, HS2 will return some spaces back for the community to use during the pause”.

On the impact of delay, an HS2 Ltd spokesperson said it had always “been transparent about our cost challenges and has worked closely with the government to reach a solution which ensures we continue to boost regional economies, support the drive to net-zero and better connect our towns and cities”.

Council cabinet member Danny Beales said: “We have been consistent in our call for a wholescale redevelopment of Euston Station which brings HS2 and Network Rail trains into a single integrated new station.

“In the interim, HS2 must open up their inactive construction sites where it is safe to do so. There is a huge opportunity to test out ideas for future uses on the site and meet community needs if the sites can be opened up for temporary use.”

Euston to become ‘world’s most expensive station’ – and not in a good way

DELAYS and spiralling costs will make the HS2 Euston terminus “the world’s most expensive station”, a Parliamentary committee heard on Monday, writes Tom Foot.

Top rail chiefs were hauled before the Public Accounts Committee to hear about the “impact on Camden” after costs rose
to £4.6billion for the Euston works triggering a decision to go back to the drawing board.

Tory Huntingdon MP Jonathan Djanogly said: “Something’s gone wrong. Who takes accountability? Has anyone been fired? Apparently this is the most expensive station in the world by a mile.”

The PAC was following up on its report in March that revealed a huge increase in projected cost of the scheme, based on construction company bills, that HS2 chiefs say they simply “could not live with”.

They said “difficult decisions” lay ahead and that they are still “thinking about what we do next” and said Camden would have to agree to compromises on its plans for the overall project.

Mark Thurston, chief executive of HS2, confirmed to the committee no one had
left their roles as the project became hit by problems, adding that the demolition work in Camden was considered “no regrets work”.

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