Restaurant using London-sourced produce closes

Posted on August 6, 2010 by Clare Hill

Photo: Clare HillKonstam at the Prince Albert, the restaurant on 'difficult' King's Cross Road that famously undertook to source 85 per cent of its ingredients from the area covered by the Tube, closed its doors this week.

The restaurant, with its atmospheric spider web-like interior by King's Cross designers Thomas Heatherwick Studio, served up the likes of Waltham Abbey Chicken, Canvey Island dover sole and Amersham lamb, accompanied by the odd Kentish wine.

According to reports in trade press, Caterer Search and Big Hospitality, chef and owner Oliver Rowe has closed the restaurant due to the 'challenging location and the economic climate'. In the reports he said that he would "continue to promote sustainability and local sourcing and would now concentrate on writing a book and developing new projects".

I personally look forward to seeing the fruits of any of these endeavours soon, and hope they will still have a strong King's Cross connection. I last dined at Konstam in April this year, and enjoyed the food and the interior as much as ever. I feel it's a real loss to King's Cross. Konstam was 'out on a limb' in both its approach to sourcing and location. While the former was key to its critical success, it's a pity that the latter played a part in its demise.

The charm-deficient A201/B503, otherwise known as King's Cross Road, is a shipwrecked coast of closed shopfronts. Konstam managed to survive there for four years. It does make me fear for other vibrant and successful restaurants and bars battling it out on the many dragstrip-like one-way systems of our neighbourhood, such as Gray's Inn Road and the Cally.

Will there ever be a full complement of successful businesses on these stretches of road, or does some urgent traffic re-engineering need to be done?

Clare Hill

Posted in Food and Drink | 3 Comments

Camden town hall annexe sell-off still on the cards?

Posted on August 3, 2010 by Clare Hill

Reproduced under Creative Commons

The new Labour-led council is going ahead with plans drawn up by the previous LibDem/Conservative-led council to sell the 1970s town hall annexe building and construct new offices in the King's Cross railway lands, according to a report in Camden New Journal (CNJ) on July 22. (Labour U-turn over ‘vanity project')

This is despite well-publicised Labour opposition before the election, from both King's Cross Councillor Jonathan Simpson and Holborn and St Pancras MP Frank Dobson, which picked up on strong local feeling.

As a King's Cross ward resident, I was anxious to see what was to happen to the project. I agreed with concerns put forward about the loss of my local library, the dangerous precedent set by the likely building of a much higher 'skyscraper' south of Euston Road and years of disruption for the local school and other facilities. In an individual written response to a letter of concern from my household, Frank Dobson said, "I should make clear that I am opposed to the Lib/Dem led council to sell off the Town Hall extension for redevelopment…I don't think it is in the Council's job to go in for property speculation…(this and other sell-offs mentioned in the letter) are to the disadvantage of the local community."

I happened to contact Cllr Simpson before the CNJ story was published, to find out the fate of the sale and details — he referred it on to Cllr Sarah Hayward, also of King's Cross ward and a council cabinet member. I'm awaiting a reply.

The building's costly state of disrepair was the key justification made by the LibDems and Conservatives for the site's disposal. They talked of a repair bill of some £15m. But according to the recent news story, the Labour administration now say it's a £77m bill. Whichever the figure, it is crucial that the calculations behind these hefty figures be made available for public scrutiny. If a decision has indeed been made, the local community deserves no less than a full and detailed explanation and the first fair chance to probe this controversial deal.

Clare Hill

Posted in Current Affairs | 5 Comments

Tree of Heaven a haven for urban wildlife

Posted on August 3, 2010 by Sophie Talbot

Haven

Although a little way over the boundary of King's Cross, take a short walk to Duncan Terrace just past The Angel and you'll see this amazing art installation/urban wildlife haven!

Spotted by neighbour Sunee – thanks for the photo too, more about the 'Tree of Heaven' here.

Posted in Arts and Entertainment, Wildlife and Nature | 1 Comment

Clarification…

Posted on August 3, 2010 by Sophie Talbot

We've received a couple of posts stating that this site is:

1. Politically biased

2. Censoring comments

To clarify… 

The Article here headed "Bridging the Kings Cross Divides" addresses the physical and political divides we face here. It does not take a view about which party is preferable, it takes the view that having the same party in control of Camden and Islington may result in the easing of cross-borough working arrangements which is likely to be of benefit to King's Cross as it is split between the two boroughs.

There is no censorship of comments on this site. If you do post a comment to any article that appears here, please be patient. Your comments will appear, it might take a little while though. This is because all the contributors here are volunteers. They do not work full time monitoring comments, hence there may well be a delay – and that might be several days – before your comment is published.

Posted in Noticeboard | 2 Comments

Bridging the Kings Cross Divides

Posted on August 2, 2010 by Sophie Talbot

Many thanks to Tobias Newland for this article:

In May 2010 the two councils which control Kings Cross both returned to Labour control. For the first time since 1998 the councils on the Islington and Camden sides of Kings Cross are controlled by same political party. Previously Camden had been controlled by a Conservative/Liberal Democratic coalition, while Islington had been run by a Liberal Democrat administration.

Kings Cross Divided (July 2010) 

 

That both Camden and Islington councils are under the same political control, “certainly makes joint working easier” notes Sarah Hayward a councillor in Camden’s Kings Cross ward which adjoins Caledonian and Clerkenwell wards in Islington as well as St Pancras and Somerstown ward in Camden north of the Euston Road. 

Since the creation of the current Camden and Islington boroughs in 1965, Kings Cross has been under unified control for only 33 out of 45 years.[1] But since 1998, when Labour lost overall control of Islington Council, there have different party administrations on either side of the Kings Cross divide (shown in red on the map above). 

Before 1965 the situation was even more complex with the area controlled by three metropolitan borough – Finsbury and Islington in the east (boundary shown in dotted red) and St Pancras borough in the west. For seven out of the 19 years between the War and 1965 the boroughs were under the control of different parties including periods in the early 1950s and again in the early 60s when the Conservatives controlled St Pancras Council with socialist administrations in the eastern boroughs.

The recent political convergence is particular welcome in the context of increasing physical divisions within Kings Cross experienced by residents walking through the area. Notably the loss of a bridge across the tracks at the northern end of Kings Cross station as well as pedestrian access into the station from Wharfdale Road. 

And then there is the severance between the Kings Cross communities living north and south of Euston Road/Pentonville Road. Such was the power of the gulf which this created in local communities that older residents remember referring to the road as the river Jordan. The introduction of the London Congestion Charge in 2003 has made things worse. This already busy road has become a de facto inner ring road with studies showing that each day more than 15,000 private cars which used to enter central London diverting around the outside instead.[2]

[1] Woolard J and Alan Willis (ed), Twentieth Century Local Election Results, Volume 3: Summary Data: Inner London County & Borough Elections 1889-1998 (Local Government Chronicle Elections Centre, University of Plymouth, 2000)

[2] Leape, Jonathan, The London Congestion Charge, in Journal of Economic Perspectives – Volume 20, Number 4 – Fall 2006, pp157-176.

Posted in Current Affairs, Kings Cross local history, Kings Cross N1C, railwayslands, Planning, Licensing and Regulation | 11 Comments

Islington Council expenditure – detailed breakdown

Posted on August 2, 2010 by William Perrin

Pound The big annual breakdowns of the council's budget that come through the door always seem pretty meaningless – too high level and corporate.  So it's good to see that earlier this year the council has quietly begun to publish a detailed monthly breakdown of expenditure items over £500.  The long list of items allows us to see that in April and May excellent local youth charity Sparkplug received over £20,000 from the council and Crumbles adventure playground over £13,000.  Bringing things down to a human, local level helps make things more comprehensible, even if the list is longer.

The spending breakdown also shows the huge sums being spent on IT in general and IT consultants.  Also this site is big campaigner for cleaner streets but the £28,000 spent with the Tidy Britain Group (in three transactions) could use some explanation.  The council asks for an FOI request for each item of expenditure – this seems wrong – the onus should be on the council to provide this information up front in summary form.

One criticism of the spending brekadown though is that it is in a pdf form – making it impossible easily to rank or makes charts of the expenditure.  I should declare an interest as i am on a panel for the government on making better use of local data.  The council seem to be preapring to publish data as a spreadsheet which will make life easier.

UPDATE: I am grateful to Roger Dunlop at the Council for providing data for April and May 2010 in  spreadsheet form

Download April final

Download May final

FURTHER UPDATE: i published the spreadsheets at lunchtime today and by teatime Chris Taggart over at Openly Local had produced this great dashboard for Islington's spend data from these two months. Great stuff Chris.

Posted in Democracy and Elections | 1 Comment

They shoot pedestrians don’t they?

Posted on July 28, 2010 by Sophie Talbot

King's Cross has a long standing and fast growing reputation for being possibly the worst pedestrian danger spot in the entire capital. At "over a kilometer including three escalators, five pelican crossings, two uncontrolled road crossings, two sets of steps", the Transport for London (TfL) recommended route from Thameslink platform A to the Victoria line joins a host of badly designed pedestrian routes at the UK's busiest transport interchange see Ian Buckland's excellent blog for more.

Residents, workers and those passing through are blighted by the strong desire to control where and when we walk held by Network Rail, TfL, and Argent King's Cross. With their heads firmly in the sand, these property developers insist on making us walk around, on herding us into sheep pens and on forcing us to walk passed their shops when all we want is to get from A to B in the shortest and most desirable route possible – that's why the routes we want to take are called 'desire lines' in planning jargon.

KXStP  But pedestrian, and for that matter cyclist, desire lines are just an annoyance to our property developers: 

  • They refuse to bridge the tracks at the back of the station to reinstall the old Battlebridge Road/Wharfdale Road link; 
  • They are making us wait forever to see promised improvements to York Way;
  • They tantalise us with hints that the sheep pens at the notorious Gray's Inn Rd/Euston Rd/Pentonville Rd/York Way junction might one day be removed; 
  • They force us to avoid the sheep pens on Pancras Road by crossing from Argyle St to King's Cross station by walking out into the middle of traffic on Euston Road;
  • They seem to have forgotten we exist at all if we want to walk from Camley St, Goodsway or Midland Rd into the rear of St Pancras or King's Cross Stations; and 
  • TfL have joined in the fun by closing off or not sign posting quick access routes to tube lines.

New crossing at Oxford CircusCommuters, workers and residents look on the wondrous crossing at Oxford Circus which for us it seems will always be a pipe dream.

 

Posted in Kings Cross N1C, railwayslands, Planning, Licensing and Regulation, Road Safety in Kings Cross, Transport, Travel, Weblogs | 8 Comments

Kings Cross in the 1950s and 1960s – archive film

Posted on July 28, 2010 by William Perrin

Some marvellous black and white footage of Kings Cross station and surrounding streets in the 1950s and early 1960s from www.britishrailways.tv  some seems to have been shot from the top deck of a bus and the tower of St Pancras.  Shows York Way with two way traffic, Caledonia Street, Railway Street, the shanty town of buildings where the 1970s canopy now is, freight in the old railway lands, lots of filthy steam trains, including the A4s Wild Swan and Mallard.  An absolute gem.

Posted in Kings Cross local history | 3 Comments