Former Waterloo Eurostar terminal to transform into restaurant hub with £200 million makeover

The former Eurostar terminal at Waterloo is to be reborn as an upmarket shopping mall more than a decade after the last trains left for Paris and Brussels.

Developers hope the 40 glass-fronted stores and restaurants will open by April 2021, creating a south-of-the-river destination to rival St Pancras International — Eurostar’s current London terminal.

The £80 million overhaul of the three levels beneath the platforms, where the high-speed trains began their journeys towards the Channel Tunnel, forms part of a larger £200 million makeover of Britain’s busiest station.

The 135,000 sq ft space has sat mothballed since 2007, although the four platforms beneath the Sir Nicholas Grimshaw-designed blue steel roof were brought back into use for commuter services from December.

Government-owned developer LCR has already signed up Time Out food market as an anchor tenant on two floors with space for 500 diners. But last night LCR officially started the search for other occupiers at a launch event at the House of Vans venue next to the station.

LCR development director Adrian Lee said he hoped to attract a range of “local, independent and national” brands — including upmarket labels — that would be closer to the shopping found at a major airport than the narrow range of familiar high street names usually located at stations.

As well as the outlets inside the former immigration, departures and arrivals halls, there will also be a new pedestrianised street to be called the Waterloo Curve. Mr Lee said that about two thirds of the total space would be for shopping and a third for eating and drinking.

He recognised that affluent commuters would make up the bulk of the shoppers, but added: “I’m as much interested in the 20 to 30 million people visiting the South Bank each year who don’t currently go even one street back from the river because it is not a very good experience. There is very little shopping around there. There is real pent-up demand.” Mr Lee said he hoped to emulate St Pancras International, where up to a quarter of the shoppers are not train passengers but are visiting the station for its stores and cafes.

Didier Souillat, chief executive of Time Out Market, said Waterloo is “a fantastic location... right at the heart of the city and the popular South Bank neighbourhood with its restaurants, bars, galleries, theatres and more.”

Waterloo International opened in 1994 when Eurostar services to the Continent began. It won RIBA Building of the Year in 1994 for Sir Nicholas, who is also known for the Eden Project.