As her University friends were heading off to exotic destinations for their long summer break, Kate Wilson was contemplating her new treehouse home outside Oxford station, writes REG LITTLE.

But she couldn't have been happier if it overlooked flamingoes in East Africa, rather than a pelican crossing at the bottom of Botley Road.

For Kate, a 19-year-old New College student, is one of the eco-warriors occupying Oxford's most unlikely listed building, the LMS station.

The 147-year-old station, formerly a tyre depot and car hire centre, was entered at the beginning of May by ten protesters determined to make a stand against the widening of Park End Street outside.

They have certainly come a long way since then. Now the LMS direct action group are the self-proclaimed guardians of the Grade II* listed station, with a 100-strong army of helpers to call upon.

While Oxford University has been busily planning to have this important part of Oxford history dismantled and shipped off to a railway museum in Buckinghamshire, they have been getting on with a huge DIY restoration job.

The front of the building has been painted in a tasteful maroon and cream, iron girders have been dusted and flower beds laid among the rubbish-strewn area at the back. And the protesters are now making themselves really at home, putting in a photocopier and new kitchen. There are even plans for a shower. Robert Sykes, 32, an English dictionary editor with the OUP, explained the reason for such comforts: "We'll be here for as long as it takes. My guess is that there will have to be a public inquiry."

Suddenly, the sniggering about trainspotting hippies appears to be misplaced.

Somehow the grubbiest building on the most tatty entrance to Oxford is threatening to wreck plans for the city's new western gateway, the Oxford Transport Strategy and Oxford University's new £45m business school.

The protesters themselves seem immensely proud of their new home. Members of the public are welcomed on tours every Saturday afternoon and an exhibition is being planned, charting how a building structure modelled on the famous Crystal Palace became a city eyesore.

Robert said: "When we first came in, it was disgusting, covered in debris. It had been allowed to fall into an appalling state over many years.

"One of the nice things is to have people calling around who have personal memories of the place. People drop in who recall leaving here to fight in the war or who remember meeting husbands returning home from National Service.

"It's not just about industrial heritage, the station is important to people."

About 20 people regularly sleep in the station, largely covered in dirty carpets and containg half a dozen moth-eaten settees. Some of them are homeless, some students. Others who work in Oxford, like Robert, joke about the benefits of living closer to the office. Local bands drop in to provide late-night entertainment, with the house rules insisting on lights out at 1.30am - except at midnight when it's time to party.

In Rob Smallwood, there is even a skilled chef. He used to work at the award-winning Fat Duck restaurant in Bray on the Thames.

But with equal zeal the protesters, boosted by many seasoned Newbury by-pass campaigners, have also been turning the listed building into Fortress LMS.

With the passing of each week the building is being systematically being made more secure to withstand any attempt by Oxford University to repossess the building it only recently acquired as part of its plans for a business school.

Tree houses are now in place and large nets hang from roof girders, to make any eviction both costly and potentially dangerous.

Kate said: "One of the best things about being down here is the mix of people. But everyone is determined that it is going to be very expensive to get us out."

Stories are already circulating around the University that the £20m gift from the Arab millionaire Wafic Said towards the business school may not be on the table forever.

Kate Wilson and her friends certainly feel they can sleep a little more soundly in their treehouses with the passing of every day.

A PROUD HISTORY

For 100 years Oxford was able to boast two stations within a stone's throw of each other.

The now abandoned LMS station was opened within a month of the opening of the Great Exhibition in 1851 at Hyde Park and immediately carried people on excursions to London. It is one of the only surviving examples of the technology used to build the Crystal Palace and is seen as one of the most important iron-framed buildings in the UK.

For many years used as a tyre depot, it eventually became a car hire centre.

Oxford University bought the property after settling on the large site in front of Oxford station as the home of its proposed £45m business school.

Oxford University, backed by Oxfordshire County Council, want to dismantle the former London Midland and Scottish station and transport it to a railway heritage centre at Quainton, Buckinghamshire.

Last week English Heritage wrote to Oxford city council to warn that it considered "the case for demolition has not been made".

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