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Fit for a king
King's Cross is on track to emerge as a new, project-filled quarter for London, reports David Taylor
A
s transformations go, the regenerative wave that has been sweeping over the King’s Cross area this last few years has been a pretty powerful one. On the one hand,
this corner of London arguably had furthest to travel, having fallen foul of the pimps and the pushers, the seedy boarding houses and the red light zones. But on the other, the opportu- nities presented by King’s Cross’ new, vastly improved trans- port links – to outer London, the centre, and continental Europe by train – have resulted in a bigger-than-expected influx of world-class education, leisure, cultural and residential building projects; one that other capital postcodes can only dream of. Eurostar, of course, has been crucial. When High Speed One
was born and the terminus transferred to a rejuvenated St Pancras from Waterloo in 2007, it brought with it the certain- ty and accessibility developers crave. It ensured that, for instance, Manhattan Loft Corporation and Bovis Lend Lease would continue with its ambitious plans to open a vast new hotel – the Renaissance St Pancras – in the Grade I-listed George Gilbert St Scott-designed Pancras Chambers building alongside, facing the Euston Road. Developer Harry Handelsman said it was a ‘big relief ’ when the decision was made to divert Eurostar trains and the building attained more cachet with the direct Paris link. Even so he has needed deep pockets and a fundamental belief in the power of the building – it has cost £200 million converting the Midland Grand into a hotel and flats to designs by RHWL, on top of £800m spent on the renovation of the station.
At that time the developer Argent and London &
Continental Railways had luckily already progressed its own plans for King’s Cross Central – a large new mixed use quarter of London it is building to the north of the main station. This project is another impressive endeavour. Masterplanned by Porphyrios Associates and Allies and Morrison, King’s Cross Central is being constructed on 67 acres of brownfield land and is thus the largest chunk of land held in private hands to be developed in London for over 150 years. It involves some 8 million sq ft of mixed use buildings, hotels, 20 new streets (the first major new streets in London since Kingsway was built in 19xx) and better access across and to the Regent’s canal. It also has an impressive cast list of architects which includes David Chipperfield, Niall McLaughlin Architects, de Ryke Marsh Morgan, Wilkinson Eyre and Bennetts Associates. But the developers are keen on maximising the spaces around the buildings, too. Around 40 per cent of the new development is given over to what it proclaims as ‘world class public realm’, and, says Argent director Robert Evans, there are 10 new public spaces. What is more, he adds, 15 per cent of the floor- space across the site is in heritage buildings. And although her- itage will contribute a good deal to the area, the aim of the project is not to recreate a ‘microcosm of the Victorian City’. This is a new piece of the metropolis which will take many years to bed in. One of the developer’s masterstrokes in hastening the
modern world’s arrival, however, was doing the deal which will see University of the Arts and its Central St Martins College’s
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