Kings Cross Environment

Kings Cross St Pancras underground station suffers severe overcrowding almost every work day.  The staff have to close the gates as a primitive form of crowd control to prevent a dangerous situation underground.  Kings Cross St Pancras underground will suffer from massively increased throughput when the Kings Cross railways lands devleopment comes on stream and tens of thousands of communters come to kings cross every day to work there as well as transit.  It is a worry that the underground station might never cope.

For some years TfL and others have been labouring on Britain's most expensive hole – the £300m Northern Ticket Hall under Pancras Road.  This will bring people who get off the Thameslink and Midland Mainline directly into the tube station underground.  This Northern Ticket Hall should alleviate problems overground in St Pancras removing a lot of the foot traffic in the main concourse and perhaps in capacity of the whole tube station – although the problem might just transfer to holding people in the undergrund tunnels like a pack of commuting moles (BTW what is the collective noun for moles).  It seems the northern ticket hole is nearing completion according to First Capital Connect (see below).  This site will keep an eye on what happens overground – a brand new multi hundred million pound tube station should not be overcrowded.

FCC news release follows, thanks to London Reconnections for tipping me off:

'London Underground will open a new ticket hall at King’s Cross St Pancras station on 29 November 2009.

This ticket hall will provide new access between FCC services at King’s Cross and St Pancras International and the Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines at the Underground station.

For FCC passengers on both Thameslink and Great Northern route services, this will mean shorter and less congested routes to and from these Underground platforms, without lengthy walks through St Pancras International or King’s Cross stations.

Final works will be completed in 2010 and will provide step-free access to all London Underground lines served at the station.

Between FCC St Pancras International Thameslink route platforms and:

In addition, new entrances/exits at the other end of the Piccadilly, Northern and Victoria line platforms will make it easier and quicker (less congested) for passengers to access and leave these platforms.

The front of Kings Cross station is a shabby, embarrassing space that lets the whole area down.

The windy concrete apron is most people's main encounter with Kings Cross. The polluted dismal expanse is haunted by drifts of litter, fag ends, smokers, the odd nutter and huddles of people waiting for things, many of them legal.

The whole place is sterilised by the pending refurbishment of Kings Cross station – nothing will happen to Kings Cross Square until 2013. The authorities seem to be prepared to let it rot in the meantime.  Committed residents like Sean Murray put huge energy into making small improvements which even then get thwarted by the council. Railway stations in third world countries are better than this. 

Responsibility is diffuse – the square is in Camden, the land is mostly owned by Network Rail. TfL has a stake with the tube and the arterial roads and odd bits of infrastructure that pop up. Closure of the East side of the station means that Islington people will have to walk across the square to get to the entrance in Camden.

Camden has been pretty dismissive of Islington resident's concerns throughout the planning process for Kings Cross.  Islington Council has to be consulted as the boundary runs along one side of the square.  The security authorities will have a big say. 

Against this background the odds of the development meeting the needs of residents and transitors is slim. Overall, this has 'car crash' written all over it.

As proof, one only has to look at how badly Network Rail and Camden have been handling an architectural competion to design a new square for 2013. Beset by delay Network Rail and others skirt around the issue whenever it comes up.  I asked Network Rail's normally helpful PR for an update a month or two ago but he didn't return my email. I suspect they are planning a giant statue of Iain Croucher with rivet hammer and a rail and bit like the Kiss in St Pancras, but a touch more Stalinist and made of gold.  The square has a budget of £6 million, whereas Network Rail have overspent by an incompetent £40million on their own platinum plated, mink lined offices in the Eastern Range that bring no benefit to the travelling public.

But whatever cockups are going on with the competition, teams of architects are beavering away on concepts without talking to the community that live next to and use the square.  The whole thing is wrong.   The magnificent backdrop of Cubitt's utilitarian station next to Gilbert Scotts high gothic folly of St Pancras requires the very best.  We could have something as wonderful as I M Pei's pyramid at the Louvre to access the tube.  But a this rate we'll get some decking, a shed and a cast concrete Venus-at-her-toilet fountain.  How can we get some concerted cross border action to shock this project out of the mire? Suggestions welcome in the comments.

Sean Muray of Albion Buildings is making small steps to get the shabby square at the front of Kings Cross improved. He has done great job to get bins installed, only to be removed by the council.  Sean writes:

'The stubbornly scruffy part of King's Cross CAN be improved – well almost!

After many, many calls and e-mails this week we have finally got litter bins located next to the bus stops outside the front of King's Cross station. One step in helping to make this stubbornly scruffy part of our community a more pleasant place to pass through. However by Friday October 30th evening the bins had gone! We suspect this is either Network Rail and/or the British Transport police preventing bins to be located here. I am investigating, meanwhile feel free to support the bin campaign by filling in the form on the Camden website [Link updated 2 Nov] and quoting ref 5443854

'I would also welcome any thoughts on how we can encourage Network Rail – who are responsible for most of the paved area in front of the station – to manage better the smoking pollution when you approach the entrance to the tube – it's horrible!

'One final thing: a Taxi office popped up above the KFC at the top of Gray's Inn Rd some months ago. Our main concern is the external flashing amber lights they use to attract business – a real blight on an area desperately trying to regenerate.

'Camden have confirmed the Taxi office are trading from residential premises and have ignored repeated requests to take down the signs. The concern is now going to the planning committee for enforcement. Your support to prevent this blot on the landscape is appreciated by e-mailing the planning office at Patrick.Oldfield@Camden.gov.uk and saying something like –

Patrick, re ref EN09/0535. Can I register my concern at the use of external illuminated and flashing signage at the Gray's Inn Rd Taxi office. Please ensure the planning committee are aware of my concern that planning laws have been disregarded for so long and we expect enforcement action without delay.'