Site of the Big Table

Just before the public meeting at Paddington Arts Centre on the 9th of November to save the Big Table, l learned that Crossrail needed a site measuring 30 metres by 70 metres (as marked out in purple on the plan above) to accommodate a sub-station near the start of the tunnel in West London.  This took me by surprise as l’d met with Crossrail officials at City Hall only recently, and they led me to believe that the site could accommodate both business and the sub station by moving the factory arm of the business into their old building at the back of the shop and starting at street level, while positioning the sub-station at track level.

The area marked in red above shows the site currently leased to Big Table. If you imagine trying to align the space needed by Crossrail to build their substation with the area leased to Big Table, then you quickly come to realise that it just doesn’t fit!  Perhaps Crossrail should be looking for another site altogether, maybe closer to the Tunnel on the other side of Great Western Road Bridge, nearer to Royal Oak tube.

Interestingly, the adjacent site at the back of the Big table site is owned by Network Rail (marked in blue). It looks to me that the shape of that site can more easily accommodate the 30 x 70 metre site needed by Crossrail and would also have the benefit of much better road access. Furthermore, shouldn’t Network Rail & Crossrail have looked into these possibilities long before coming down on the Big Table?