please empty your brain below
Agreed. And if you think it’s bleak in June, try it on a cold March day. I can’t imagine many real people wanting to live here.

Liz | 15.06.18 - 7:24 a.m. | #

I shall avoid Coal Drops Yard as I have found anything designed by Heatherwick studios to be unattractive,impracticable and if a bus uncomfortable.
Would be great if the apartments inside the gasholders went up and down!

John | 15.06.18 - 7:41 a.m. | #

Perhaps best visited after dark, during the Lumiere festival?

Andrew | 15.06.18 - 7:44 a.m. | #

As a world city, London might be able to sustain this type of development, designed to give the impression of a community without actually being one, if you have this amount of money to spare, you could just buy a house near Crouch End, Clapham or Highgate.

Still Anon | 15.06.18 - 7:47 a.m. | #

No mention of public toilets anywhere on the walking tour. Which borough would that be? Ah, the eastern edge of Camden. Thanks a lot, Camden.

dg writes: They exist, well signposted, just up from Waitrose. And inside Camden Library.

RayL | 15.06.18 - 7:56 a.m. | #

£3 for a scoop of ‘nice’ ice cream looks in-line with the £1.50 for a soft serve ice cream from the Surrey quays van.

Messiah | 15.06.18 - 8:03 a.m. | #

The "former industrial land" to which you refer was largely originally railway land owned by British Railways (that's you and me).

The land was "gifted" to the winner of the competition to build HS1, as was the similar old railway land at Stratford, also once owned by British Railways, which we then bought back to create the Olympic site.

strawbrick | 15.06.18 - 8:11 a.m. | #


diamond geezer | Homepage | 15.06.18 - 8:29 a.m. | #

Granary Square needs another visit from the machines of the Mutant Waste Company, who last brought some excitement to the place on 4th June 2016.

Bob L-S | 15.06.18 - 8:36 a.m. | #

Your last paragraph is spot on. Vibrant London being squeezed out by Corporate London.

coffin dodger | 15.06.18 - 9:10 a.m. | #

Depressing.

I was looking forward to that picture of you kicking back on the grass with an ice cream and all I got was you putting the boot into the corporation.

I wonder if anyone has produced an alternative walking tour with real information of interest and not just designed to flog things...

drD | Homepage | 15.06.18 - 9:45 a.m. | #

There is an Architects Journal tour - A Walk Around King's Cross - which focuses on 21 local building projects.

But it's out of date, and it too is over-focused on real estate, retail and dining.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 15.06.18 - 10:01 a.m. | #

Thanks for this. I did wonder, on reading, what on earth a "sloping water feature" could be, as water surfaces don't slope very well. However, your picture makes it clear, that it is apparently a stepped water feature, which actually looks quite attractive.

But I share your disappointment that a marvellous site and opportunity has been filled up with such generally mediocre (but apparently profitable) stuff.

Mentions of food in the tour are not to be taken seriously - ignore them like the ads on TV and all over most of the internet (with honourable exceptions!). They are how things are paid for, ever since 1955.

Malcolm | 15.06.18 - 10:20 a.m. | #

I've not walked round KX for a long while. You've confirmed that it is little different to any other redeveloped area in London. The architecture is dull and tedious and the atmosphere soulless and overly controlled (security staff, cameras etc). Reminds me of parts of the Olympic Park - dull and boring.

PC | 15.06.18 - 10:38 a.m. | #

To be fair, much of the architecture there is considerably less dull and tedious than elsewhere in London, mainly because they have kept some of the old stuff to hide the expensive brown boxes.

What they have done with the gasholders is quite interesting, for example.

But it is crying out for some bold public art - imagine a big Henry Moore or Barbara Hepworth or Elizabeth Frink or Lynn Chadwick (or the modern equivalent) in one of those squares or gardens. It can't be too difficult, given there is an art college on site. Perhaps the students could be asked to propose something as a project, and the developers spend a teeny tiny fraction of the property sales revenues on making up a few of the best ones. If you need a commercial motive, it would make the property around it more attractive (and so more valuable), increase footfall (attracting customers to the retail offering, so increasing rents), and you could wait 20 or 30 years until one of the artists is the new Emin or Hirst or Whiteread or whatever, and then flog that piece at a massive profit and replace with something new again. Simple.

Andrew | 15.06.18 - 11:07 a.m. | #

With the emphasis on PSEUDO. These are of course privatised spaces covered by CCTV. Just try starting a protest or any kind of free-speech. You'll soon see how public it is. This is all part of the final wave of privatisation - the removal of public space under the pretence of redevelopment and enhancement. Read the book "Ground Control" for the full story.

daveid76 | 15.06.18 - 11:09 a.m. | #

What about us dinosaurs without smart phones - another form of exclusion. I haven't got one out of choice (no need - yet) but some may not be able to use one or not afford one.

dg writes: A paper version of the out-of-date pdf is available from the Visitor Centre.

The area's saving graces are the retained glorious earlier architecture, full of character, and the rare vintage fair in the Square.

The grub is not that good, sold on the experience not its edibility.

Bah humbug (or Spangles)

Joel | 15.06.18 - 1:41 p.m. | #

I wandered around this area recently without benefit of a guide, virtual or otherwise. I found most of it to be without soul or coherence, and generally dispiriting.

I was truly glad when the Regent's Canal towpath led me elsewhere. Won't be rushing back anytime soon.

Frank F | 15.06.18 - 1:51 p.m. | #

Well here I am in the Diamond Geezer Café thoroughly enjoying a cap of delicious tea - thanks, DG, no sugar, just a drop of milk, OK that’s fine - made from the usual hand curated Chinese black Yunnan leaves. So I can sit here in DG corner and not have to endure KX, merely to lounge in peace and read the usual fascinating account. Many thanks for the opportunity to relax.

Herbof | 15.06.18 - 2:50 p.m. | #

You can open all these upscale bars, eateries and shops, but are there enough customers for them?

Especially when there are other more attractive places in London with similar businesses.

Mikey C | 15.06.18 - 2:58 p.m. | #

Consumerism is the new religion they say. Probably because many humans have lost the power to think for themselves and need constant amusement and entertainment. Why can't we just enjoy the beauty of places for the good feelings they give us.

Tones | 15.06.18 - 3:19 p.m. | #

I'm an uprooted Londoner, 44 years living in NYC with visits back to the UK becoming less frequent.

A few years back we walked around parts of this area just after the new 'shed' over the station opened.

What struck me then was how soulless open spaces here were and that the redevelopment seemed disjointed rather than organic.

The photos of the walking tour showed that at least canal boat tours look to be flourishing, but what is truely scary since this area seems to be a collection of expensive residential buildings is this.............. if the developer is the same as the designer of Boris's New Bus for London,
then the apartments will have sealed windows, non working air conditioners, and instead of being world leaders in their class they will just be over engineered and overly expensive.

Brian Berke | Homepage | 15.06.18 - 3:19 p.m. | #

Spot on once again DG. Camley Street Park always was lovely but now it's probably the only thing worth going to in this area. I used to volunteer at BTCV in York Way in the 90s - couldn't have imagined then that the Guardian would end up opposite! It was grim and seedy round there but the architecture and the industrial buildings were wonderful. Also Platform 1 of the station was used by the mail trains. Shit. I feel old..... :)

Auntie Doris | 15.06.18 - 3:24 p.m. | #

I feel I should mention that, although a lot of the text here contains a note of disappointment (and rightly so), you have done so well photographing the best bits, that it almost makes me want to go and have a look. Almost.

Malcolm | 15.06.18 - 5:32 p.m. | #

I've wandered around some of this, thanks for taking one for the team so I don't have to do the rest.

Andrew | 15.06.18 - 9:36 p.m. | #

On balance though I do think the area is better than it was 20 years ago. Some bits felt quite scary - Goods Way for instance looked like a location for some crime drama where mysterious cars would pull up and flash their headlights before meeting up to arrange a heist.

Andrew S | 15.06.18 - 11:40 p.m. | #

It's the impossibility of stopping at the half way point between somewhere that is rundown, dirty and frankly nasty, as KX was twenty or thirty years ago, and a bland, soulless, corporatised redevelopment. I feel quite fortunate to have spent the little time I did in the area - as a volunteer skipper on Tarporley - around ten years ago at what was maybe that half way point. I don't recognise it when I go back now, but then thirty years ago I might not have dared go there at all.

Sarah | Homepage | 16.06.18 - 8:03 a.m. | #

Maybe it was because I went on a sunny day, But I thought it was actually quite nice. The square you visted to me was full of people, a mixture of mums and kids, stubdents and tourists just relaxing in the sun with a few snacks from Waitrose.

I understand your aversion to marketing, but you just seem a cranky old man shouting at the sky. Just tune out the marketing at let it flow past you. Unless you of course your angry at the modern world is part of your USP to draw in regular visitors.

rational plan | 16.06.18 - 5:45 p.m. | #

I doubt many if any read comments on your esteemed blog beyond publication day, but I've been simmering on this to the point where I have a spare moment, so here goes.

I was surprised at the extent of your cynicism on this. I have found the Kings Cross St Pancras saga fascinating since the start of St Pancras re-purposing from near-dereliction to world-class showcase, and love the retail and extensive victualling. Likewise King's Cross from rubbish appendage to fine open spaces and magnificent concourse. And the redoubtable Parcel Yard (without a doubt the best station pub in the world).

I enjoy Pancras Square and the variety of surrounding buildings, intriguing in variety and well superior to most modern developments, with a cool and appealing ambience.

The hinterland around Granary Square (Coal Drops Yard, Granary Building (University of the Arts), Fish & Coal Offices (Tom Dixon), Midlands Goods Shed (Waitrose), Gasholders) has been restored with ingenuity and sensitivity, and includes copious public realm which to my mind succeeds in combining heritage with contemporary interest. How could a restoration on this scale be funded other than through retail and sustenance? Or should the entire area forever have been a decaying museum piece?

I love the juxtaposition between old and new, the canal and locks, Camley Street, the architectural counterpoint. From the numerous comments and appreciation at https://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=505188&page=172 I don't think I'm alone. Maybe you find Covent Garden, Shad Thames, Spitalfields, Camden Lock similarly retail-heavy, but I think that affordable or not, that's what gives London its lifeblood.

Strabismus | 18.06.18 - 7:33 p.m. | #

There are some lovely bits, as I hope I hinted in the post.

But the underlying vibe from the trail, and from walking around, is relentlessly upmarketly commercial.


diamond geezer | Homepage | 18.06.18 - 7:46 p.m. | #











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