This is the picture from last Friday's Evening Standard
for an enthusiastic piece by Tristam Hunt about the new space behind King's Cross Station.
But what is so encouraging about this regeneration is that while so much recent development has put up gated communities, we now have a new enthusiasm for shared spaces. This is about public riches, not private wealth.
King’s Cross Square — alongside Granary Square and Pancras Square —herald a return to one of the foundation spaces of modern London.
I went there last weekend, and had no idea of the changes I was about to see - and I'd go along with that - it really did have me saying "this is amazing". In fact, I wish I'd taken my camera, because I'd say it felt better to be there, at ground level, human level, than the feeling a bird's eye view can reveal.
What am I looking at? Is "the vision" complete? It seems to be a fairly vast unbroken concrete(?) concourse with the odd bench here and there and a presumably functional if ugly rotunda stuck in the middle and with no or minimal greenery bar a few as yet seedling trees, the whole of which granted isn't a car park or a tower block so I guess that's a bonus. I'm not getting a sense of wonderment, should I be?
I agree that it's a great space, and the two stations look wonderful. I worked in the area for 10 years until taking maternity leave and the changes even in the last year are incredible. There is also a lovely space to the rear by the canal.
A lovely place to linger now where there was once dirt and chaos.
Both stations are now very impressive and the public space is great, especially around the back.
Unfortunately TFL and Network Rail refused to succumb to pressure to fix just over the road the horrid one way system, which has the unfortunate habit of killing people on a regular basis.
I think you either have to be very hard to impress or just want to find fault in everything if you aren't impressed by the changes in Kings Cross.
It's a vastly improved space, reveals a wonderful architectural asset and creates a much better space full of really good quality materials. Why on earth the awful 70's metal frontage was stuck on this in the first place is beyond me.
I'm glad London is peeling back the layers to reveal some of it's historical gems, and contrasting it with really good modern architecture. Hopefully the days of Euston Station are behind us.
I was hoping for more or background information as my internet became almost unusable last night and in any case the Evening Standard page was down. I wasn't expecting such harsh comments just for asking why a concourse was somehow special. Hey ho. The concourse is York stone I've learned, not concrete incidentally, which is a very attractive paviour.
So, for anyone who like me didn't know the "before" of the redevelopment of Kings Cross Square: http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/6288.aspx which has a video and progress photographs. It's probably the 70's when I last went so was surprised that it hadn't changed at all - until this mammoth makeover, which was completed ahead of schedule by the way, so well done them.
I recall the inside of the mainline station in the 70's which was very dark, not helped by soot-black walls which I assume are now cleaned and apparently the two glazed roofs have been upgraded. Not shown in my link above is the fabulous new ticket area: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=kings ... 600%3B1200
It's now easy to see how "wonderment" comes into it
I think, as much as anything, it was the varied sequence of spaces which opened up as I walked to the station from the Central St Martins School of Art, now in Granary Square, and past the canal.
