This page starts with the bios which are 100 words or less – ones originally submitted as short ones, or newly received now. Longer ones are after that.
When the short ones are all here we’ll delete them (moving them in to the book), leaving the full set including longer ones which can have pictures and so on.
Albert Beale Journalist, environmentalist and peace campaigner, always associated with 5 Caledonian Road, Peace News and Housman’s Bookshop. Trustee of the building and host to many radical movements.
Zannthie Bennett is a writer, performer and community activist and works in environmental sustainability. She holds a BA(Hons) in Environmental Policy and Management. She has lived and worked in King’s Cross since 2001, and was driven to work in setting up a recognised Neighbourhood Forum for the cross -borough town in order to facilitate a legal Neighbourhood Plan. Chair of the committee for two years, she assumed a role of responsibility and care for the character of the area on a voluntary basis, and remains dedicated to representation of heritage, environment and wellbeing needs in London planning.
Christine Bowmaker lived in Stanley Buildings from 1976 to 1985. Over these years she was an active campaigner helping to resist and repel the many threats to the buildings. She was one of the founding members of the Stanley Buildings Tenants Association becoming at various times its Chair, Secretary, campaign representative and, not least, party organiser. From 1979 to 1985 she also produced and edited SBTA’s popular zine, Block 8, which combined campaign, local and social news. Christine’s career spanned 35 years teaching in further and higher education. She is now enjoying retirement by pursuing many activities including painting and costume design.
Jeannie Burnett Active conservationist in Islington and adjoining Camden over many years.
Michael Edwards Co-editor of this collection. Intermittent member of RLG after being brought in by Camden to advise in 1987. Senior Lecturer in the Economics of Planning at the Bartlett School, UCL. Member of the management committee in the final years of RLG and co-chair with Marian Larragy in the end. A founder member of JustSpace.org.uk, and of the International Network for Urban Research and Action INURA.org in 1991. Blogs at michaeledwards.org.uk.
Diana Foster is an artist, a digital learning professional who founded and now runs A Space for us People’s Museum as a response to destabilising change in the area, a space which documents the past, as well as amplifies local voice to influence the present public realm so there is a future for Somers Town which includes its peoples and history. Her passion for its neglected stories began with her 2013 participatory film somerstownwishes, (What are your wishes?) and she continues to record and gather voices from below such as in her 2016 documentary film Spirit! The working class daughter of Polish refugee miner and dressmaker, she’s lived in the midst of change in Somers Town, London since 1987.
www.aspaceforus.club
www.somerstownwishes.net
https://aspaceforus.club/film/
Fran Heron Chair of the Ampthill Estate Tenants Association and the Camden Federation of Tenants. Became co-chair of the Camden Central Community Umbrella.
Roz Hopkinson Co-founder of the Women’s City Project, and organiser of various lesbian and gay events at The Bell pub in the 1980s
Rachel Jones Trader in Caledonian Road and one of the initiators of the Cally Traders Group.
Jason Katz PhD candidate at the Bartlett School of Planning, UCL, and, as a labour of love, Co-editor of this collection. Member of the International Network for Urban Research and Action INURA.org since 2023. Working with JustSpace.org.uk since 2021.
Randal Keynes (1948-2023) was a resident, with his spouse Zelfa Hourani, in Keystone Crescent, just east of Caledonian Road. He was a leading campaigner against the British Rail proposal to construct a station for Channel Tunnel trains diagonally below King’s Cross station and involving the clearance and excavation of the network of streets and buildings east of York Way. The campaign was finally a success, recounted in his chapter of the book. In his day job he was a senior civil servant.
Jasmine King became an early resident in the main development site at King’s Cross after facing the challenges of homelessness and finding a healthy and safe home. She founded and runs a children’s clothing and creative workshop business that currently trades at Canopy Market on the site. Her work has been recognised in various ways, most recently in the Gold Award in City Kids Green Best Fashion Brand – Visionary. Her hope is to secure the funding needed to scale her business and provide a permanent space that will increase the impact locally and across the UK.
Marian Larragy lived in the area around King’s Cross and St Pancras for most of the past 48 years. She worked as a Bus Conductor for five years from 1977, studied for a degree at City Poly after which she researched mainly on Northern Ireland and Anglo Irish Affairs for Irish Information Partnership. She was Policy & Networks Development Worker at Voluntary Action Camden in the 1990s and was a member of the committee of the King’s Cross Railway Lands Group from 2003 to 2013. While working for the London Civic Forum, as Policy Participation Co-ordinator, she helped establish the Just Space network. She has been involved with Camden Community Radio ( www.ccradio.org ) since 2005.
Richard Lee Community activist who moved to London to take a job with the Campaign for Homes in Central London CHiCL, was subsequently active in the short-lived London Social Forum and a co-founder of Just Space which he coordinated for many years. Was employed as community planner at the RLG in 2005-7 and remains active in Just Space and Fairville.
Esther Leslie is Professor of Political Aesthetics at Birkbeck and has research interests in political theories of aesthetics and culture and the poetics of science and technology, as well as animation, in an expanded sense. She has a particular focus on thinkers associated with the Frankfurt School, including Walter Benjamin, T.W. Adorno, Kracauer, Bloch. Born and bred in Somers Town, she is research lead at the Somers Town Museum.
Julie Lowe: 1989 to 1999 Battlebridge Centre; 2000 to 2010 working and studying to improve my overall knowledge of all the diverse subjects that interest me including half an LLB, living off grid, farming and building. 2010 to 2014 local authority councillor. Seeing from the inside how it works. Just exactly what I thought I would find! 2013/14 to date – Currently toying with partial retirement but can’t quite get it done. Last 11 years growing organic food and giving it free to those in need. Working with people in the criminal justice system, those with mental health issues and brain injury.
John Mason Historian and active member of RLG through most of its life. Resident of Hillview for 40 years.
Wendy McLean moved into Stanley Buildings in 1978, then worked abroad for an NGO. She moved back in 1980 while studying and working at London University before moving out in 1986. Living in Stanley Buildings was a constant effort of campaigning to preserve the buildings for the residents including successfully defeating a plan to demolish the buildings in favour of a coach park (circa 1982/3). Many parties and music events happened in the ‘garden’ and it was the location for our wedding photos. Film companies used the location including sometimes inside flats. Currently retired and living in East London.
Annika Miller Jones. I studied architecture at the Bartlett, UCL. I worked with a local authority where social infrastructure was being destroyed and replaced by anonymous large scale housing separating families from their environment. I returned to architectural studies to research how social housing could reflect individual choices. I worked with a housing association on house rehabilitations including working with co-ops using statutory funding to provide alternative and appropriate designs. I championed a local Planning for Real campaign for land next to my home. Once stewardship of the land was established, I was fortunate to continue as development worker.
Robert Milne was secretary and website author for the King’s Cross Development Forum from 2010 to its end. His first connection with the Forum was accidental: having looked at urban planning for community groups elsewhere and having just moved to the area, with no idea of how many such groups there were in King’s Cross, in 2009 he attended a meeting of the Forum believing it to be the Railway Lands Group. He found himself on the committee by the end of the meeting and as the secretary soon after.
Sarah Newton lived in Stanley Buildings from 1986 until 2001, and was an active member of the residents’ association. She was also involved in the Railway Lands Group, serving as treasurer, editing the newsletter, and taking part in other communication projects including Planning For Real. Professionally, she has had a chequered (does ‘portfolio’ sound better?) career, working as, for example, an interpersonal counsellor, a housing involvement and campaign worker, a video editor and an activities planner for people with learning disabilities. She is currently retired, living in East London, studying creative writing and dance, and running a community video group.
Michael Parkes was the part time Planning Worker for the King’s Cross Railways Lands Group from 1990 to 2002. A now-retired Chartered Surveyor and Town Planner, he worked from 1967 to 1985 in the public, private and community sectors in UK, Middle East, Europe and Africa. From 1985 to 2015 he worked as an independent Community Planner, both self employed, and as Co-ordinator of Planning Aid for London, as a member of CLAWS – a major Community Technical Aid Centre – and as a part time Lecturer at Bartlett School UCL. He continues to provide community planning support and assistance as a volunteer.
Vijya Patel Shopkeeper and an initiator of the Cally Traders Group, formed to defend small businesses when the Channel Tunnel Rail Link threatened their part of Caledonian Road.
Rob Pateman, member of Nightworkers, a lesbian and gay co-operative who ran several nights at the Bell pub in King’s Cross in the 1980s. Co-creator of Back to the Bell, a Facebook group for devotees of the Bell and those interested in its history. He also worked in Capital Gay newspaper’s advertising dept 1986-88, and was Stonewall’s first ever Copy Manager.
David Pike After an initial period as a civil engineer and transport planner at the GLC and Colin Buchanan and Partners I joined Camden Council in 1976 where I then qualified as a town planner. I was elected to the council of the Royal Town Planning Institute on the ticket of the Radical Institute Group (RIG) determined to promote the social purpose of town planning alongside its regulatory function. I became Camden’s Director of Planning and Communications in 1986 and in 1989 its first Director of an Environment department formed after a merger of four related functions.
Jackie Power spent forty years in the voluntary sector, after starting her career in commercial property administration. Jackie was elected secretary to the North Southwark Community Development Group, chaired Southwark Council’s Conservation Areas Advisory Group and appointed a Trustee of the Borough Market. During her time as a Trustee, Jackie wrote the Illustrated History of Borough Market. She studied horticulture at Capel Manor, and in 2000 won a place on the King’s Fund Leadership Programme. Jackie became Garden Projects Manager at The Hoxton Trust before joining the Railway Lands Group; worked at West Bermondsey Community Forum, and for several housing co-ops/Tenant Management Organisations (TMOs), chairing a Southwark TMO.
Bill Risebero. My wife and I brought up six children in London while I worked as an architect and planner. This included fourteen years with Camden Council, on the Railway Lands Project and, alongside Michael Edwards, on the early stages of the King’s Cross development. At Camden I was a Union rep for several years and my voluntary work included chairing a homeless project in King’s Cross and Somers Town. Having written three books on architecture I moved to full-time teaching. I ran the Architecture degree at the University of East London and later taught at Central Saint Martins, including at the Granary.
Una Sapietis played active roles in the RLG through its entire life. Drawn to the bright lights of London, Una moved from Edinburgh aged 18. She lived in the historic listed Ossulston estate, first as a squatter and then as a Council tenant until 2011. Now in cleaner, greener North London, she still misses the community and the inner city culture of Somers Town and King’s Cross, which was a unique place to live and grow up in. She works as an event organiser in the voluntary and public sectors, with special interest in music, social housing, health and sustainability.
Diana Shelley is a journalist and experienced campaigner who, with her partner, Phil Jeffries, helped found the Cally Rail Group in 1993 after the route for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link changed from King’s Cross to St Pancras. She was elected chair of the group, which campaigned for changes to the rail link and associated developments for 21 years. Working closely with the Cally Traders Group, Islington councillors and officers, the Railway Lands Group and other local groups, they won some significant changes, especially in the way High Speed 1 was constructed in west Islington.
Jane Swan Resident for many years in Culross Buildings and active in the defence of the tenants.
Mary Swift worked for many years in the Resettlement Home for Women in King’s Cross.
Pauline Wetherell lived at Stanley Buildings 1976-2000 where she was an active member, and sometime treasurer, of the Residents Association, the rep at Campaign for Homes in Central London (CHiCL), and the Somers Town tenants’ meetings. She was also employed as the rent collector for the buildings. Training as a singer at the Royal Academy of Music and then as an Alexander Technique teacher means she now combines teaching the AT with freelance singing. What a privilege to be able to study music, voice, psyche and soma for so long with no state grant – hard financially for young people today.
Gwendolyn White (stage name Olivia Ebony White) was born in Montserrat, (Leeward Islands, West Indies) grew up in West Hampstead and has lived in Somers Town for 50 years. She set up a number of community projects in the area, including drama for children, homework support and a toy library. Some of her short stories were recorded by Camden Community Radio in 2023. See www.ccradio.org at www.podcast.canstream.co.uk/camden/index.php?id=1041
www.podcast.canstream.co.uk/camden/index.php?id=1042
www.podcast.canstream.co.uk/camden/index.php?id=1043
Ben Williams lives in King’s Cross Central, to which he moved when the first new housing there became available. In his working hours he is the managing director of his company, which has won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation because of its fixings and connections designed to avoid thermal bridging through insulated walls built to Passivhaus standards.
Richard Wolff Geographer who, as a research student, wrote a thesis on the Railway Lands Group for his university in Zürich, later being one of the founders of INURA.org the International Network for Urban Research and Action. He later became a councillor and then a minister in the Zürich city government, representing a red/green party.
Ray Yates was born in West London, raised in Gt Yarmouth Norfolk. A London visitor for gigs and culture from 1977 onwards, moving in 1984 then squatting until 1991. Stanley Buildings tenant, and SCH Co-op; both committees from 1991 until 2001, then treasurer doing final accounts. Community Housing Association main board SCH representative. RLG member in 1996/9 doing a photographic exhibition of the current area of King Cross, with input on community planning projects. Commissioned photographic survey of Stanley Buildings in 1999. Whilst studying 1990-1997, both BSc and MSc degrees at LSE. Working in social housing repairs, maintenance, estate services management for 23 years.
Longer versions start here
Zannthie Bennett is a writer, performer and community activist who has lived in the King’s Cross area since 2001. After taking a degree in environmental policy and management she worked for a large nature conservation charity. Extensive redevelopment locally motivated her towards working to set up a neighbourhood forum that would have a legal neighbourhood plan for the cross-borough area. She was chair of the committee for setting up that forum and assumed a role of care for the character of the area on a voluntary basis[i].
Diana Foster is an artist, a digital learning professional who founded and now runs A Space for us People’s Museum as a response to destabilising change in the area, a space which documents the past, as well as amplifies local voice to influence the present public realm so there is a future for Somers Town which includes its peoples and history. Her passion for its neglected stories began with her 2013 participatory film somerstownwishes, (What are your wishes?) and she continues to record and gather voices from below such as in her 2016 documentary film Spirit! The working class daughter of Polish refugee miner and dressmaker, she’s lived in the midst of change in Somers Town, London since 1987.
www.aspaceforus.club
www.somerstownwishes.net
https://aspaceforus.club/film/
Jasmine King became an early resident at King’s Cross Central after facing the challenges of homelessness and finding a healthy and safe home[i]. She founded and runs a children’s clothing and creative workshop business that currently trades at Canopy Market in King’s Cross Central. Her work has been recognised in various ways, most recently in the Gold Award as Visionary in City Kids Green Best Fashion Brand.
Wendy McLean moved into Stanley Buildings for the first time in 1978, a few months before going to work abroad for an NGO. Returning in 1980, she moved back into SB while studying, and later working, at London University before moving on to East London in 1986.
While living in Stanley Buildings there was a constant effort on campaigns to preserve the buildings for the residents including successfully defeating a plan to demolish the buildings in favour of a coach park ( circa 1982/3). There were also many parties and music events in the ‘garden’ and along with the roof, it was the location for our wedding photos. Film companies often used the location including sometimes inside flats. Currently retired and still living in East London.
Annika Miller-Jones studied architecture at The Bartlett, UCL, and worked for a year at Southwark Borough Council which was in the process of building large four-storey ribbon housing developments that separated people from the ground with high level walkways. Streets of small terrace houses were being demolished to make way for these developments destroying the social infrastructure of the neighbourhoods. I was disillusioned with this approach to local planning and left to work in a community centre in Camden. In 1970s I spent a few years part-time home tutoring children for the London Borough of Brent in order to fit with childcare. When my son started school I returned to my architectural training at Central London Polytechnic (now University of Westminster). At the time I believed that trends in architecture had become more humanistic, and the theme of my dissertation was about how social housing could be more focused on individual choices, lifestyle and circumstances. 1979-81 I worked for a housing association mainly designing the rehabilitation of existing property. I was passionate that individuals should have a say on their own environment and in consequence I championed the local Planning for Real campaign for the piece of land next-door to my home. The process was so very close to my heart. When we had established stewardship of the land, I was fortunate to continue as the development worker.
Sarah Newton lived in Stanley Buildings from 1986 until 2001, and was an active member of the residents’ association. She was also involved in the Railway Lands Group, serving as treasurer, editing the newsletter, and taking part in other communication projects including Planning For Real. Professionally, she has had a chequered (does ‘portfolio’ sound better?) career, working as, for example, an interpersonal counsellor, a housing involvement and campaign worker, a video editor and an activities planner for people with learning disabilities. She is currently retired, living in East London, studying creative writing and dance, and running a community video group.
Jackie Power has spent nearly forty years in the voluntary sector, but started her working career in commercial property and banking administration before moving to the community sector. In 1989 Jackie took time out to study horticulture at Capel Manor and again in 2003, this time to study medicine at Middlesex University. She won a place on the Leadership Programme at the King’s Fund; The Hoxton Trust (Garden Projects Manager); Railway Lands Group; Southwark Council Day Care Centres; EBCC; West Bermondsey Community Forum; Four Housing co-ops; Complementary Medicine Practitioner 2010. Voluntary Work Elected to the North Southwark Community Development Group; Chaired Southwark Council’s Conservation Area Advisory Group; Appointed a Trustee of the Borough Market during its renaissance from wholesale to retail food market. Produced the ‘Illustrated History of Borough Market’; Chaired Falcon Point Management Group TMO. Jackie is committed to community involvement and is currently watching proposals for the redevelopment of the Aylesham Centre in Peckham (preparing a submission for the Public Inquiry) and also following the ever-changing plans for the Old Kent Road ‘Opportunity Area’.
Bill Risebero I am a Londoner, and my wife and I have brought up six children here. It was here I first qualified and worked as an architect and planner, always on public sector projects. Latterly, this included fourteen years with Camden Council, first on the Railway Lands Project and then on the early stages of the King’s Cross development. I was also a Union rep for about ten of these years.
I had another connection with Somers Town and King’s Cross as Chair of a charity for the homeless and for single-parent families in the area. However it was through part-time teaching that I first met Michael Edwards, and we were both involved with the King’s Cross project from the beginning.
Meanwhile I had begun writing my three books on architecture and design, on the strength of which I was asked to teach full-time. For eight years I ran the BSc Architecture course at the University of East London. Much of our work was done in collaboration with the local community. Later I taught at Central Saint Martins, both in Holborn and at the Granary.
Diana Shelley is a journalist, with a history degree gained as a mature student. She has been active over 65 years in various campaigns, including the peace movement, women’s liberation, squatting, and helping to found and run a housing co-op. This gave her wide experience of organising in small groups, including the importance of encouraging those involved to develop skills and confidence. Her late partner, Phil Jeffries, was active in the campaign against the original rail link proposed to King’s Cross, including the Railway Lands Group, of which he was elected chair on three occasions. Diana became directly involved in 1993 when the route changed to St Pancras, with the rail link planned ‘to surface behind our kitchen window’. They helped set up the Cally Rail Group, which campaigned for changes to the Channel Tunnel Rail Link/High Speed 1 and associated developments. Cally Rail Group was active for 21 years and worked closely with the Cally Traders Group, Islington councillors and officers, the Railway Lands Group and other local groups. The changes that they managed to get, especially in the way High Speed 1 was constructed in west Islington, are amongst her proudest achievements.
Pauline Wetherell I lived in Stanley Buildings from 1976 until 2000, the longest time I had lived anywhere. In those days I was a singing student at the Royal Academy of Music so it was geographically very convenient. My local authority was not persuaded to give me a student grant consequently I was extremely grateful for the very low short-life rent. I supported myself with a cleaning job and soon became the paid rent collector for the buildings enabling me to spend 5 years at the Academy followed by an additional 3 years training as an Alexander Technique teacher. During our last years there I was also treasurer of the tenants association and earlier I had been the Stanley Buildings rep at The Campaign for Homes in Central London and at the Somers Town tenants’ meetings at Inquire. My professional life is as an Alexander Technique teacher in private practice and at The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. I also work as a freelance singer. Looking back I realise what a privilege it was to be able to afford to sustain a study of music, voice, psyche and soma for so long, not so possible financially for young people today.
Ray Yates born in West London, then raised in Gt Yarmouth Norfolk. A regular London visitor for gigs and culture from 1976 onwards, after both Education and Art, colleges in Gt Yarmouth, in 1986 squatting in Kings Cross and Camden area until 1991.
A SCH Co-op committee member, as a Stanley Buildings tenant from 1991 until 2001, and ending up as Treasurer doing final end SCH accounts in 2002. Studying throughout this time 1990-1997 both Bsc. Soc and Msc. Housing Social policy, degrees at the L.S.E.
In 1994 as a Community Housing Association main board Stanley tenant representative. In 1994 became Secretary of Stanley Blds, with the next 5 years of an intense re-housing campaign.
KXRLG member in 1996: contributing to a photographic exhibition of the current area of King Cross, with input on community planning projects. Commissioned to do a photographic survey of Stanley Buildings exteriors 1999. Meeting local activists and campaigners was an invaluable learning experience – a thank you to all of them.
Working in social housing repairs estate services management for 23 yrs. An exhibitioner of photography, paintings, stencilled art, published poetry and local theatre player. Now semi-retired local handy person, in Walthamstow, and working in the film industry: (intermittently since 1987 to date). Kings Cross will always be a part of my life forever.
Poem for book or web site
A Kings Cross Poem (1983-2001) each word expressing the Ad Hoc Chaos of Kings Cross then.
The Epicentre
Trains traverse and disperse
Buses, bikes and Red kites
Gothic turreted edifice
Planes pedals and pigeons
Psychogeography and pornography
Fauna flora and fumes
Rats Raves and Rowers
Onlookers’ hookers and bookers
Silver screen and canteen
Bands Buskers and homeless
Arches Dances and Agitation
Drugs Mugs and Thugs
Clipping stripping and dipping
Lay-lines mainline and baseline
Ecstasy nights and Acid n Jazz
Art Redstarts and sweethearts
Queers Punks and punters
Multi – cultures Mix
Canal boats and black-coats
Bedsits transit and Refuge
Films fashion and photography
Nomad Olympiad and comrade
Brownfield yields and battlefields
Community mutiny and Unity
Rayant 2025
[i] Life after homelessness: ‘When they found me a flat, I felt nothing could stop me’, The Guardian, 13 March 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2020/mar/13/life-after-homelessness-when-they-found-me-a-flat-i-felt-nothing-could-stop-me.
[i] Zannthie Bennett: King’s Cross dynamo, Islington Faces, 13 March 2013. https://www.islingtonfacesblog.com/2013/03/21/zannthie-bennett/.
King's Cross from below 