The brilliant StillOneLDN with Barnsbury Community Group are running an event on Friday 12th February to give local 14 to 25 year olds the chance to have their say about the election for Mayor of London .
Held at the Hugh Cubitt Centre, 48 Cubitt Street N1 9QZ, the event includes music, workshops and food and runs from 6pm to 8pm.
For more information call Rob on 0207 021 4755.
It’s important to remember the amazing things that a determined group of local people can achieve – in this case in 1989 stopping the Channel Tunnel demolishing half of Kings Cross. The original plans called for a vast bunker station roughly between Kings Cross and old Thameslink on the Pentonville Road. It would have wiped out almost all of the Victorian buildings. Local people working with their MP, council and others managed to take on the might of British Rail and sink this plan. Eventually the route to St Pancras from the East took over. There is a rich history to the campaign – would be very interested in people’s views in the comments and indeed tagging everyone in the photo. If you are feeling shy, drop me a mail instead. Thanks to Tony Rees for providing the cutting.
In case you were wondering what is behind the hoardings at the site of the future Whitbread Hotel at the junction of Wharfdale and York Way it’s a giant hole. Not quite as big as the one under the Guardian Kings Place, but a substantial excavated basement even by Chelsea or Hampstead standards. In future it will look like this.
A wonderful online presentation of the 1893-95 Ordnance Survey sheets for London are available from the National Library for Scotland. At this astonishing scale the detail is exquisite, even within some buildings such as the train stations (predating Google by over 100 years). On the streets individual trees are drawn. And the map is a salutary reminder of the ultra high density back to back ‘modern housing’ around Bingfield Street that was replaced by even more modern housing in the 1960s. A fascinating lunchtime browse.
Also a reminder of the phase when competition in mapping drove higher and higher quality. Stanfords, whose shop still thrives on Long Acre and other commercial map makers competed fiercely to keep the state funded Ordnance Survey out of London producing from the 1850s fabulous large scale Library Atlases of the fast growing city, where maps were a vital tool in the burgeoning public administration. There was intense lobbying from both sides captured a little by the Library as they describe the genesis of this map. The OS mapped much of the rest of the country, leaving London almost until last, when blockbuster publications such as this would have dealt a heavy blow to private sector competitors.
It should have been done years ago but finally new Tarmac is going down at this awful local junction.
The weirdly warm weather means that some plants have never caught on that it’s winter and others are going Spring like early. The blossoming cherry tree in Argyle Street is sure to attract hordes of homesick Japanese people. And at the bottom of the Cally Road outside Tesco what might be a hazel (identification welcome) is in full leaf and budding catkins. Did this one ever lose its leaves or is there a micro climate produced by air vents from the cafe in Tesco?
Sadly yet another tree has been broken off on York Way. This one has been mainly sawed off at chest height and the top of the tree dumped in Railway Street. Not clear what happened here whether it was a determined vandal with a saw or someone knocked it with a vehicle and then someone sawed it off. The local community has done a lot over the years to support and pay for street trees in this highly urban environment and it’s always sad to see another go. I counted quickly at least three decapitated trees on York Way – as we are in the planting season they could be replaced. Does the council have any funds left for this sort of thing – maybe something from local S106-as-was money?
The Guardian has now paused work on its creative space planned for the Goods Shed next to Waitrose according to Event Magazine who have a full piece on it. Due to open in Autumn this year the space was always one of the stranger ideas for the Guardian, not least because it already occupies offices built on top of an errr state of the art creative space. And indeed such is the extent of remote working it’s not like there isn’t space among the journalists. In an optimistic piece in 2014 the Guardian said of it’s aspiration to be..
‘….A platform for fearless quality journalism which brings to life these abstract notions of the public realm in experiences of debate, discussion, sharing of ideas and learning; in print, online – and now, live. This is our vision: around the world, the Guardian will host and create the forums and opportunities that bring people together; to explore, debate and shape the vital intimate and global issues of our age. From a renovated train station in King’s Cross to pop-ups in far flung global cities, we’re building platforms for Guardian readers – a bold response to the disintegrating fabric of our public realm.’
Maybe it was was all just a ploy to get a better rate for their conferences and events in the basement. Now under new management the Guardian seems to have the whole concept under review. But there’s also an old and new media thing – as this news broke, Google’s application for yet more offices in Kings Cross goes to Camden council, more on that shortly.
Nonetheless a modern public space that was more than just space as it were would be a good thing to have – not sure if the economics for it stack up though. Perhaps the Kings Cross Central people can get it to fly with someone else – Google perhaps?
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Pollution levels on Euston Road King’s Cross weather (BBC)
Kings Cross Environment 