Demise of petrol stations in London?

The approval of the change of use for the petrol station within the landmark Lyon’s Place building along Edgware Rd to an electric charging point station at last weeks City of Westminster planning Committee, should herald a new age in electric infrastructure in London and the demise of the council’s Petrol station preservation Transport Policy. 

Starting with the latter, this decision should see the death of Transport Policy 17 in the Westminster Council UDP to preserve petrol stations. So it will be very interesting to see what now happens to other developments where the Council insisted that they have petrol stations incorporated into them like the one along Cleveland St, Fitzrovia. As it is noticeable that we have been losing petrol stations in Central London for the past 10-15 years anyway. 

This while its clear to me that we have been losing petrol stations in Central London for sometime, as car ownership drops amongst local residents and those with cars still are prepared to travel further away to “tank up” the car.  As it is noticeable that we have been losing petrol stations in Central London for the past 10-15 years anyway. And in the Church St ward that Lyon’s Place building finds itself in, we have car ownership dropping down to 35 per cent since the beginning of the century when it stood at 50 per cent. 

So this landmark development won’t just be the place we have the big red retro-petrol pumps making it stand out along the Edgware Rd but also be the first place where we saw a petrol station converted into a major electric charging point station. Marking a major advancement in the electric infrastructure of London for the new future of electric cars and buses on the streets of London.