Concerns over TfL interim proposals for gyratory

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Sophie Talbot

Last week Transport for London announced a programme of removing old style gyratory systems across London including King’s Cross, which we welcome here with the proviso that the new road system designs provide substantial improvement for vulnerable road users as well as motor traffic. Designs are yet to be revealed and consulted on. Meanwhile TfL has announced interim alterations to the King’s Cross gyratory to be implemented this summer, and right now we are rather concerned about these…

Interim proposals for the KX gyratory from TfL

Interim proposals for the KX gyratory from TfL

Two problems are immediately obvious on viewing the proposed interim changes:

Caledonian Road two way traffic

1. TfL say they have consulted stakeholders before releasing the interim plans. Islington Council consulted on removing the Caledonian Road/Wharfdale Road section of the gyratory in October last year. Works have now started on this. The TfL plan shows Caledonian Road as one-way traffic. I’m not sure what TfL means by ‘stakeholder consultation’ but releasing plans that are out of date at the time they are published shows a lack of basic information let alone stakeholder consultation. The phrase ‘these people are managing our traffic systems – agh!’ springs to mind.

Road safety for all

2. The plans appear to have been drawn up by someone wearing filter goggles only allowing them to see one issue – cycle safety – and not see that particularly well.

Also…

Where are the interim plans for the Euston Road/Pancras Road junction?

Count down crossings

count down crossingWhy, when countdown pedestrian crossings have been introduced at Euston and the area close to the Universities, are there no countdown crossings at King’s Cross where they are desperately needed – particularly but not solely for Euston Road/Pancras Road and Euston/Pentonville/Gray’s Inn Road and York Way.

The current pac-man style eat ’em up game played by buses, lorries, motorbikes and cars at these junctions is terrifying for me and I’ve lived here 25 years – seeing the startled faces on thousands of pedestrian visitors to the area each day when fast traffic comes at them at the strangest of angles would be hilarious if it weren’t potentially deadly. The interim plans look like they’ll make this worse – by eating into pedestrian spaces – not better.

Vulnerable road users

Cycle safety is in the news right now and rightly so. But witness the buzz term ‘vulnerable road users’ being employed in interviews by those campaigning for road safety and you’ll see how hard it is for them to get the message across: SAFETY FOR ALL. Cherry picking one issue is plain madness, no matter how much it panders to tabloid style dumbo journalism.

I’ve had a bit of a rant about a few, but not all, issues of concern about the interim plans, for which I apologise… Your comments are most welcome here but… most importantly… TfL is running a consultation so please, please make your views known that way (let us know what you said, it’d make an interesting article to list all your comments to TfL when the consultation ends):

King’s Cross interim plan consultation events

4 and 11 March
4.30pm to 7pm
King’s Cross Neighbourhood Centre, Argyle Street, WC1H 8EF

The consultation website includes a link for you to give your comments.

DEADLINE FOR COMMENTS IS 25 MARCH 2014

Posted in Bad Gyrations KX Campaign, Road Safety in Kings Cross | 18 Comments

Redevelopment of Belgrove House

Posted on March 5, 2014 by Sophie Talbot

Local resident and activist Richenda writes:

Site of Belgrove House

Belgrove House is the low red-brick building currently housing Access Storage, the King’s Cross post office and so on. It sits opposite King’s Cross Station forming the south end of King’s Cross square, and at the rear forms the north side of Argyle Square .  

Following an exhibition at Lumen 3 weeks ago the developers have put all the information on a website: www.belgrovehouse.com.

The website has no proposals.  It only contains contextual information about the area which according to the developers is “underwhelming and incomplete” in comparison with the north side of Euston Road.   So far they are not saying anything about what they want to put on the site.  We met with a representative of the owners a few years ago and he was not so coy, stating clearly that they want a tall building.

The developers see this site as primarily part of Euston Road.  We don’t share that vision, we see this site as forming  the south side of what is now King’s Cross Square and, just as important locally,  the north side of Argyle Square, a Bloomsbury garden square – neither of which would benefit from a tall building.

For architects the owners are using Farrells.  Sir Terry Farrell is fond of directing people’s attention to “the space between buildings”. We agree that this space is important but for this particular location our attention is focussed very much on the space above buildings.   The attached press release (from June 2012 but still relevant) details our arguments against tall buildings opposite our two, much loved, Grade 1 listed stations.

It’s important that we in the community, again, voice our opposition to tall buildings on our bit of Euston Road.  Please write to info@belgrovehouse.com and let them have your views, especially about height.

Posted in Architecture, New, Planning, Licensing and Regulation | Leave a comment

What’s the value of a community getting its act together on arson? About £200,000 perhaps?

Posted on March 2, 2014 by William Perrin

outram_fireKings Cross has improved a lot over the last ten to fifteen years – particularly anti-social behaviour. A new set of data has prompted me to have go at estimating how much one aspect of that improvement is ‘worth’, in a way that might help others looking to raise money locally. There’s a new (to me) spreadsheet published by the Cabinet Office on the cash ‘value/cost’ of specific things: from an arrest, to being excluded from school, to arson.   It’s designed to help people quantify social impact and pulls a lot of disparate information together in one place – really handy for bid writers.

‘This unit cost database brings together more than 600 cost estimates in a single place, most of which are national costs derived from government reports and academic studies. The costs cover crime, education and skills, employment and economy, fire, health, housing and social services. The costs can be used by local commissioners, charitable organisations and social enterprises.’

I am sure there are flaws and compromises for people to pick at, but it is a good place to start.

I’ve written several times about the huge reduction in the levels of car fires and other arson around Rufford Street, up in the North part of Kings Cross.   Arson fell from a level of more than one a week to less that half that, although still high compared to the rest of Islington.   Arson in Caledonian Ward as a whole (most of which, in my view was car fires in the Rufford/Gifford/Bemerton/Outram area) fell sharply due to a wide range of community measures – better youth work especially by CYP and Crumbles, community policing, better housing policies, local people drawing attention to the problems etc etc.

According to the fire brigade there were 58 incidents in 2007-2009 period.  In next period for which I have data, 2011-2013 there were 27.  Cabinet Office data, based on fire service figures value the average cost of a non-buildings fire as £7,181 each.  So if the level of 2007-2009 had been repeated in 2011-2013 there would have been an additional cost to society of £222,611.  Or to put it another way community action that led to reduced arson was ‘worth’ £222,611.  This is a very crude calculation of course – not least because it misses 2009-2011 for which i don’t have data to hand

Stattos would be welcome to hack away at my numbers – I  didn’t use a methodology more elaborate than ‘subtract one number from another then multiply it by a third number’.  Mainly because at this level of abstraction I thought more accuracy slightly spurious – I was seeking a rough number.  Comments welcome.

Data like this is another reminder of how sad it is not to have Phil Jeffries around anymore, who would point our more or less tactfully how i had got it wrong and improve it.

Posted in Anti Social Behaviour, Crime etc, Bingfield Park | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Waitrose and new events space in old potato store

Posted on February 25, 2014 by William Perrin

image - wikimedia

Plans for the old potato depot by York Way are up for approval – I have lost track of the complexities of the planning process for some of these buildings – can any local planning experts let us know in the comments if local people can contribute to the Camden planning process?  Perhaps we’ll get a visit from Heston, or Delia?

‘New designs have been revealed for the historic Midland Goods Shed and East Handyside Canopy in King’s Cross. Leading firm of architects, Bennetts Associates, has developed proposals that will see the two structures sensitively restored and converted into a new Waitrose supermarket and cookery school, as well as a separate events and cultural space.’

Built in 1850, the Midland Goods Shed started life as a temporary passenger terminal, used while today’s King’s Cross station was being built. Queen Victoria departed from here on her way to Scotland in 1851. After the completion of King’s Cross station, the building was used for handling and storing goods that were brought into King’s Cross from across the country. The East Handyside Canopy was added in 1888 to provide a covered space for the transfer of potatoes and other perishable goods from rail to horse and cart.

Here for more A link to the planning documents on the Camden site would be handy if anyone can turn it up. Image http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Tahir_mq

Posted in Kings Cross N1C, railwayslands, Planning, Licensing and Regulation | 4 Comments

King’s Cross rebranding – we have a winner!

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Sophie Talbot

Thankyou to everyone who took part in our tongue in cheek competition.

Congratulations to Lynne who not only rebranded the area the London Borough of Battlebridge but also proposed a Passport to Pimlico style bid for independence from LBs Camden and Islington.

Entries to the competition are now closed, feel free to keep suggestions coming in even tho there’s no prize at stake now…

Posted in New | 3 Comments

Re-branding Kings Cross – prize donated – £50 of drinks at the Rotunda, Kings Place

Posted on February 20, 2014 by William Perrin

ROTUNDA kings placeWe’ve been having a lot of fun this morning with a community driven re-branding of Kings Cross, rather than letting Foxtons do it for us.  We’ve had dozens of suggestions from the sublime to the ridiculous to add to our list. Favourites so far:

‘we should ditch Islington and Camden, and form a new London Borough of Battlebridge. We can include the N1C area as I like the fountains, and it means that a newly-built Town Hall will be ours. And Waitrose.’

‘why not call it Boudicca City’

‘Graunvista’

‘King’s Cross station is on the site of an old smallpox hospital, and the neighbourhood was famous for its sex workers. What about Poxville? Kings Poxville? Poxton (a name for Foxton to treasure)? Kings Spot?’

‘Valley of the King’s’

‘Pontecorvotown’

Keep them coming in because we even have a donation of a prize: a £50 bar tab at Rotunda  Bar and Restaurant, Kings Place.  Enter by commenting on this post or filling in the contact form below. We’ll select a winner on Friday afternoon sometime probably and we’ll need your email address to send you a beer token (t&c below). And no we are not selling out to commercial forces, it’s all a bit of fun. The normal service of dour planning updates, misery about Network Rail, gyratory tales, moaning about the council and nature observations will resume next week under our new title of ‘Estates Gazette: Kings Cross edition’.

T&C for bar voucher

Voucher cannot be exchanged for cash equivalent
Voucher must be redeemed within one month of competition close date
No change will be given from voucher
All items subject to availability

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨

Posted in King's Place, York Way, Regents Quarter | 2 Comments

Kings Cross Village anyone? re-branding suggestions for KX please….

Posted on February 19, 2014 by William Perrin

kings cross oldWe’re picking up reports of spurious local descriptors from estate agents – Wharfdale Road is in Bloomsbury apparently – so we thought we’d have some fun of our own with some candidates for a re-branded Kings Cross, rather than leave it to Foxtons.  With all the N1C stuff (and good luck to them) we wondered how you could rebrand old Kings Cross – you know where we mean, the bits largely East of York Way, North and South of Euston/Pentonville Road.

What on earth would you call a re-branded Kings Cross? We’ve put on the red glasses, stroked our beards, held no focus groups and brainstormed with a Post It wall using the best agile methods to come up with this list for your amusement, pleasure and delectation, drawing upon the rich history of idiosyncratic, lewd or metonymic British place names reflecting past and future uses. We’d love your suggestions to add to the following:

Kings Cross Village
Kings-Cross-on-Fleet
Guardianville
Callytoun
West Barnsbury  West
North Bloomsbury
Kings Cross Shire
RexCrux
Kings Crosse
Battlebridge on Fleet
Boudiccaville
Google Town
Little Caledonia
Grabcunbury
Pottertown
KoHo (Trademark applied for)
Gyratopia

Let us know favourites or suggestions in the comments or by email or on twitter or The Facebook – then we may have a vote.  There might be a prize for the best suggestions [update we now have a prize of £50 drinks at Rotunda Kings Place]. And NO it isn’t serious….

Posted in Community stuff, New, Planning, Licensing and Regulation | Tagged , , | 18 Comments

Dave Elvis – Cally Legend

Posted on February 17, 2014 by William Perrin

Lovely film of Kings Cross legend, Dave Elvis from London Cares – who are funding people to make films about older folk.  You can find Dave on Twitter and Facebook.  The King is not dead, merely living in Kings Cross.

Hidden Heroes: Dave Elvis from NorthLondonCares on Vimeo.

Posted in King's Cross People, Music | Tagged , | Leave a comment