InterCity Place is a 11 storey building at

Plymouth railway station Plymouth railway station serves the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. It is on the northern edge of the city centre, close to the North Cross roundabout. It is the third busiest station in the county of Devon and the largest of the six survivi ...

, the main rail station in

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

. The building was previously called Intercity House and was used as an office building. InterCity Place has 11 stories and is 47.2 m high and is one of the tallest buildings in Plymouth (2018).

History

Intercity House was built when work to rebuild the railway station was started by the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a History of rail transport in Great Britain, British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, ...

in the 1930s but was delayed due to

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Work was restarted by

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commis ...

in 1956 to the designs of architects

Howard Cavanagh Howard Earnest Bernard Cavanagh FRIBA (17 August 1910 – 3 August 1960) was an English architect. Career H.E.B. Cavanagh was born in India, the eldest son of Bernard Cavanagh (b. 1877) and Annie. He arrived in London on the P&O ship Mongolia f ...

and Ian Campbell as part of the post war reconstruction detailed in "A Plan for Plymouth" put forward by

Sir Patrick Abercrombie Sir Leslie Patrick Abercrombie ( ; 6 June 1879 – 23 March 1957) was an English architect, urban designer and town planner. Abercrombie was an academic during most of his career, and prepared one city plan and several regional studies prior ...

at the request of Plymouth City Councillors. The modernised station, including the tower block of offices, was opened in 1962 by Dr Beeching, The building was scheduled for a major update in 2014 as part of a ten-year plan to improve the facilities at the station.

Proposed demolition

The Heart of South West Local Transport Board published proposals to redevelop Plymouth railway station in 2017. The aim was to provide an improved 'gateway to the city' and would have included the creation of a public square in front of the station. This would have included the demolition of Intercity House. This demolition never went ahead, and it was instead planned to be converted into a building for the

University of Plymouth The University of Plymouth is a public research university based predominantly in Plymouth, England, where the main campus is located, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges across South West England. With students, it is the ...

Conversion to University Building

In 2019 the

unveiled plans to renovate the building and convert it into a new teaching building, renaming it to InterCity Place in the process. The building has 11 floors and an illuminated "halo" light beacon on top. InterCity Place is a part of a 10-year masterplan by the University of Plymouth. The repurposed building provides a space to train and nurses, midwives and allied health professionals from the School of Health Professions and School of Nursing and Midwifery. The building cost £33 million to upgrade.

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

retained ownership of the building and are leasing it to the University for 150 years. The conversion was worked on by construction contractor

Kier Group Kier Group plc is a British construction, services and property group active in building and civil engineering, support services, and the Private Finance Initiative. Founded in 1928 in Stoke-on-Trent it initially specialised in concrete enginee ...

and opened in 2024. During the construction works a fire broke out in the building resulting in the railway station being evacuated, nobody was hurt in the incident.

References

External links

Plymouth.gov.uk
*
Skyscraperpage.comWebsite
Buildings and structures in Plymouth, Devon Office buildings completed in 1962 {{University of Plymouth Buildings at the University of Plymouth

History

Proposed demolition

Conversion to University Building

See also

References

External links