This month it will be exactly 20 years since one of London’s most significant 21st-century planning decisions. In early March 2006, property developers Argent finally persuaded Camden council to give the metaphorical green light to its masterplan for the regeneration of King’s Cross after a six-year battle. It was a watershed moment for London — and King’s Cross has never looked back.
The extraordinary reinvention of the once- derelict railway land to the north of the station that followed has become a blueprint for the revival of decaying former industrial sites all over Europe. Indeed, such has been the success of the King’s Cross story it is becoming hard to recall just what a grim and grimy area it was, rife with drug dealing and prostitution.
