Really wonderful blossom on show in Bingfield Park right now. Well worth a walk in your lunchbreak or a diversion on your commute. As ever though you have to dodge the dog poo especially just off the paths. Bingfield Park is between York Way (Randell’s Road) and the Cally Road (Bingfield Street).
Crane rental has been used for many years as a proxy for construction industry activity. Here are eleven at work in Kings Cross.
The Guardian has fired a traditional opening shot in any rent renegotiation by floating rumours of a move from its Kings Place office. And there’s a right old ding dong about how to finance the Guardian and its digital ambitions post Alan Rusbridger’s editorship.
In the Daily Telegraph a couple of weeks ago:
‘Executives at Guardian Media Group, the publisher of the title, are understood to be looking at offices in at least two alternative London locations as they seek to reduce bills at King’s Place, the Islington development that has hosted it for seven years.
Company sources said the Guardian was likely to seek to retain some space at the site alongside King’s Cross station, but that it was possible sales, back office or editorial departments would be forced to move in the cost-cutting drive. A complete exit also remains possible.
“If they decide they can find cheaper accommodation elsewhere they will have to move,” said a source familiar with the discussions.’
This follows news of the loss of the middle class eaty-nibbly-gossipy space in the Goods Shed and our 1 April piece about a Donald Trump rescue package for the Guardian, moving the staff to Stoke-on-Trent and installing a casino in KP.
The Guardian’s cost-cutting has triggered handbags at dawn articles by media commentators about whether Alan Rusbridger’s approach of spending down some of the Scott Trust’s endowment was the right thing to do in the absence of a sufficiently strong revenue model. Michael Wolff calls it a ‘suicide mission’ but Rusbridger’s recent riposte in the Spectator is a good read reflecting the perspective of someone who had to take tough decisions.
Peter Millican’s Kings Place building, for all the sturm und drang in the planning process (my god how people hated it back then replacing the low-rise 1980s warehouses) was instrumental in helping Kings Cross turn the corner. Peter flogged it for £235m in 2012 and good luck to him. I helped the Guardian with a ‘welcome to Kings Cross guide’ for their staff when they moved from their shabby Farringdon offices. In the early days of the Guardian residency, having read a lot of Clay Shirky I gave a talk on websites in one of the spectacular concert halls that cheekily began with ‘Welcome to the Guardian’s mausoleum’. Hope I wasn’t right.
The King’s Cross pond, or ‘Of Soil and Water’ to use the title of this temporary art installation near the York Way railway bridge, was planned to exist for just two years. After that it will be filled in and covered with lawn extending Lewis Cubitt Park. That it will remain green open space is positive given the lack of green open space locally. But lawn is of limited ecological value. Local arts and environment charity King’s Cross Community Projects asks: What if the pond were to stay forever as a wildlife haven fully landscaped into Lewis Cubitt Park?
Of Soil and Water is the creation of Oooze architects Eva Pfannes and Sylvain Hartenberg with ecology at its heart:
“The enclosed site presents the natural environment in miniature, a landscape in motion, a theatre of ecological cycles: the water cycle, the plant cycle, and the soil cycle. It is a mise en scène of the processes that occur between humans, water, soil and plants. All life starts in water. Plants move from water to land; they grow and move across the land, fertilise the soil, and eventually die.”
The King’s Cross green corridor, which includes Regent’s Canal, Regent’s Park, Camley Street Natural Park and Thornhill Bridge Community Gardens, has suffered, and continues to suffer, huge losses in wildlife habitat mainly because of canal side property developments removing naturally seeded mature planting. This is sometimes replaced with smaller areas of cultivated young plants but more often with nothing. Our local urban wildlife is at risk. King’s Cross Central Limited Partnership and Argent, developers of the trade marked King’s Cross private estate whose unique postcode is N1C, have an opportunity to gift that wildlife an entire ecology system and at very little cost indeed – if any.
This is a project the London Wildlife Trust at Camley Street would surely adore. Converting a public swimming area into a wildlife haven complete with existing planting. Their expertise is second to none and they are just the other side of the canal. All it would take is a little landscaping to tie the pond area into the rest of Lewis Cubitt Park. It’s hard to see what additional costs would be involved, yet the benefits would be many and varied.
Would the artists who created Of Soil and Water love to leave a lasting wildlife legacy to be enjoyed by local residents and visitors?
Surely Argent’s gardening team, from, Willerby Landscapes, would be more than capable of the biodiverse conversion given they would be tasked with filling the pond in and covering it with a lawn monoculture anyway?
Would the Aga Khan appreciate a natural pond with aquatic creatures and waterfowl creating a peaceful oasis of calm right next to his new University and Cultural Centre?
We can’t see any downsides to this…
In a surprise development Kings Cross based newspaper and website The Guardian has today announced a deal with Donald Trump to secure its financial future. The Guardian Media Group recently announced a wave of cuts to save £54m over three years, about 20% of costs.
A spokesman for Mr Trump said – ‘We can make the Guardian great again. Since rhetorically taking over CNN Mr Trump has enjoyed appearing on left of centre media outlets and the web traffic he generates is huge. It seemed easier just to buy one in Europe. We’ll be looking to build a casino in Kings Place and we’ve found some nice office space in Stoke-on-Trent for the Guardian staff.’
A spokesperson for the Guardian Media Group said – ‘The age old maxim is journalism is ‘follow the money’ and no one can blame us for doing so. The casino in Kings Place will be sensitively themed to echo the papers heritage – The C. P. Snow Slots and Rusbridger Roulette will bring a modern context to ‘They do not toil, neither do they spin.’ The Polly Toynbee Poker Room will ensure a fair deal for all (albeit in the house’s favour). This means we can at last afford the events space in Kings Cross for middle class millennial chat and nibbles the country is so desperately lacking.’
A spokesman for the Scott Trust said – ‘We hope this will lead to more coverage of poetry in the paper.’
Islington Council confirm they have an entire planning policy devoted to stopping Trump.
The police have asked for this notice to be distributed through community outlets. I am sure all Kings Cross people who can remember the terrible 7/7 attack will want to express their solidarity with, in particular the communities who live and work near the scenes of these disasters in Brussels as well as general sympathy for those affected.
Police message begins
>
We are all aware of the shocking and tragic attacks in Brussels today; first and foremost I would like to express that our heartfelt prayers and wishes are to all those involved and to the Belgian nation.
We are still in the early stages of learning about what took place but I would like to reassure you that we have increased policing presence at key locations, including transport hubs, to protect the public and provide reassurance. I would like to stress that this is NOT in response to any specific intelligence relating to London or any specific community, rather our concern about how communities may be feeling.
I am personally writing to you and asking for your support through the next few days when communities may naturally be feeling a sense of uncertainty and require us to help reassure them.
I would be grateful if you can use your networks and messaging systems to reach as many of your community members as possible to convey the following messages;
Officers and uniformed police staff will be out and about as part of London’s community life, they have all been briefed and would welcome members of the community approaching them and will do their best to help reassure them.
If any member of the community spots anything unusual within their community that they do not feel happy about then please report this to police using the 101 number or if its urgent 999. You can also call the confidential Anti-Terrorist Hotline 0800 789 321.
It is with regret but something that we have come to realise through experience is that hate crime can increase and I would ask that any incident of hate or hate crime is immediately reported and assure you that it will receive a fast response and be dealt with by specialist officers.
I would also like to this opportunity to bring our advice on the steps to take to keep safe in the event of a firearms or weapons attack to your notice which can be found on the National Police Chiefs Council website.
On a final note and I know I speak for all of us in saying that #westandtogether with Belgium and together we can send out a strong message of defiance against who seek to terrorise us. Please can I ask you to encourage all of our communities to simply send the message that ‘we will always stand together’ on twitter and other social media.
Thank you for your continued support and friendship.
With my best wishes,
Mak Chishty
Commander – Community Engagement
Developers propose some large buildings on the land behind the concrete works and construction training centre by Randell’s Road and York Way according to plans published on the Council website yesterday. This is the ‘Islington Triangle’ site that was the subject of hard fought battles many years ago – it’s the only bit of the KX development that is in Islington. In application number P2016/1030/RMS Argent the agent say:
‘…comprising 12 to 17 storeys of mixed use accommodation for 140 Open Market residential units on the upper floors of Building W1 and 8 storeys of residential accommodation for 36 General Needs Social Rented, 23 Intermediate and 19 Open Market units at the upper levels of Building W2; four retail units at lower ground floor and podium levels (flexible class A1-A4); and associated cycle and disabled car parking, loading bay, refuse stores, storage, plant areas provided within the shared lower ground floor/basement area, as required by conditions 2, 4, 6, 9-20 and 22-30 of outline planning permission reference P041261 granted 22 July 2008 (subject to a S106 agreement) for a comprehensive, phased, mixed-use development of part of the former railway lands within the Camden King’s Cross Opportunity Area and an Islington Area of Opportunity.’
You’ll get the best flavour from this easy to read Urban Design Report from where I have extracted the proposed view from Bingfield Park above. We shall no doubt write more on this here when we have had a chance to digest it, the plans are open for comment until 14 April.
You know spring is here when the Wildlife Trust volunteers are out in force on the towpath between York Way and the Islington Tunnel…
This morning saw them hard at work conserving the wonderful planting around the entrance to the canal at The Cally. I particularly loved the photo of the volunteers behind the stunning sunshine yellow of the gorse flowers.
Also out this morning were a host of naturally seeded plants. These are so important as they have evolved to be very comfy here, to work with local conditions and, vitally local wildlife. They are part of our natural ecology playing a role it’s very difficult to reproduce by planting other species…
I think these are Alexanders – Smyrnium olusatrum – a long forgotten food source replaced when we discovered celery. If I’m wrong they may be poisonous to eat (but safe otherwise) so until I get confirmation be careful out there folks!
Just coming into leaf this Lucerne, aka Alfalfa, will have a lovely flower later in the year. If you listen to a radio programme about farming folk you’ll know Adam uses this for the good of his soil!
This little beauty is often ignored, but it and our bees are great, great friends. It’s common name is Red Dead Nettle (there’s also a white variety), Lamium purpureum. Despite being called a nettle it’s actually one of the mint family.
This may have been planted here some years ago but has definitely naturalised. It’s Comfrey, a great friend to bees and possibly moths (plants that are good for moths have recently been removed from the towpath at N1C which is sad. Bats eat moths, without the moths the bats disappear). Later on this plant will have beautiful teardrop flowers.
Anyone know what this is? I’ll check with the Facebook group British and Irish Wildflowers and update you soon…
I adore this stunning tiny flower more than I can say. It’s a variety of Speedwell, Veronica.
Lesser Celandine – Ficaria verna – never fails to make me smile!
A horticulturalist’s nightmare (apologies gardening folk!), Bugloss aka Green Alkanet, Pentaglottis sempervirens. It spreads like crazy. It’s amazingly blue flower is just marvelous.
Another one generally hated by gardeners yet adored by bees, Dandelion, Taraxacum, in amongst the speedwell. I’m afraid I just love these edible plants that do so much good for wildlife – sorry!
There’s a wealth of wild plants on the towpath. If you fancy taking a photo or few of what you spot, do send them in and we’ll share them.
 | William Pitt-Jones on Rufford Street local hist… |
 | Shirley Nicholson on Kings Cross voices back on the… |
 | Cally Labour Council… on End of the road? |
 | Daniel Z. Zylberszta… on End of the road? |
 | Tony Rees on End of the road? |
| Daniel Z. Zylberszta… on Yes! It’s all gone 20 mi… |
 | Edward on Yes! It’s all gone 20 mi… |
| TFL Consultation… on New Consultation Launched for… |
Pollution levels on Euston Road King’s Cross weather (BBC)
Kings Cross Environment 