This page is simply a place where we can write thoughts and asides as we go along in the editing of the book – recording stuff which may find its way into the chapters or introduction or (this) supporting web site. Please add new stuff at the top here.
August 3
The book was submitted to the UCLPress on time and on (zero) budget on Friday 1 August. Lots of minor adjustments to the chapters, contents page and this web site. Some author biographies are still missing and there are some copyright permissions being delayed.
The Press allows 2 months now for a reviewer to review the material. They may suggest changes and when those are complete the book goes to typesetting. By then all the images and permissions must have been sorted out.
24/5 July
renumbering of chapters from 9 onwards; search box added on main page.
9 July
Each chapter or vignette now has an associated page (just click on the blue title) where we can put additional material, links, updates and so on.
Question: should we shift the lists of attached documents from the mainpage to the relevant chapter’s linked page? Where there are lots of documents the present layout weakens the clarity of the book contents list in my opinion. Later: done on 25 July
26 June
I just added the contributors to the list of people who can view this web site before it goes public. If you are a contributor and haven’t had an invitation to join, let me know please.
Yesterday I encountered Peter Bishop – head of Planning at Camden at the time of Argent – and he told me that Allies and Morrison had just published a book, along with Robert Evans (Argent’s man on the spot at the time) and Dimitri Porphyrios (the co-designer) about the master plan. I have just ordered a copy at the price of £59 and am waiting for it to arrive. Provisionally I think it is too late for us to analyse it and we should probably simply say that it appeared as we were going to press.
https://www.lundhumphries.com/collections/recently-published/products/kings-cross
Ple
28 Feb 2025 Michael Edwards writes
With a longish bus journey ahead today, from Tottenham to Hoxton and later back, I looked around for something to read. Normally this is when I digest an issue of the London Review of Books but I didn’t spot an unread one so I picked from the shelf of unread books a slim volume which I must have bought sometime since its 2018 publication: Curious King’s Cross by Andrew Whitehead, published by Five Leaves Publications.
It’s a rather amateurish book, more like a blog site, and evidently not edited by anyone other than the author himself. He describes himself as a journalist, historian and North Londoner by adoption. I find it rather awkward as a jumble of local stories in no particular order, lacking any sources or references and with precious few dates. But there is a strong radical thread in it, fishing out the class conflict or material history of the places and episodes he covers. I learned a lot from a couple of hours reading it, especially on the counter-cultural and grassroots events of recent decades. My friend Linda Clarke figures twice in it from when she lived as a council tenant in Cromer Street and, as chair of the TRA, found herself negotiating with the sex workers who had occupied the Holy Cross church (year unstated) and then again when she had been active in the defence of the Elizabeth Garrett Andersen hospital.
There is also a very graphic account of the Bell Pub in its heyday and of the clubbing scene in the goods yard before, during and after Bagley’s warehouse.
I don’t think we need to make much use of this book in our own volume but it is so good to know it exists and we can refer to it for people who want more flesh on the bones of local life. We should check that some of our contributors have seen it, notably Jane Giles whose chapter is on The Scala.
2 March 2025 Michael Edwards
That Andrew Whitehead book is further evidence for the continuing poliitical life of the neighbourhood.
Off topic: two of my Bartlett colleagues Susan Moore and Michael Short are holding a round table on comparative urbanism in pedagogy & research and I have just offered to contribute some autobiographical reflections. This will be a distraction from the KX book but I’ll blame Jason because his relentless “what did you do in the war?’ questions have brought all this stuff to the surface.
Web site progress: We just (22 May) agreed a title for this site and we have bought and registered the domain with WordPress.
Original KXRLG web site. Today 26 May we are adding a link to a saved copy of the old King’s Cross Railway Lands Group web site. The original is archived at the British Library but remains inaccessible following the massive hacker attack of 2023. The version here seems to be incomplete or damaged but give it a try. Download this folder, open it and click on index.htm to start browsing. Or you can try opening individual files.
King's Cross from below 