Kings Cross Local Environment

Deep Inside London's Dying Sex Cinemas | VICE

They're also under threat from the authorities, who see them as stains on the local area. When I contacted him in January, local councillor Paul Convery said, "Islington Council is determined to see these establishments closed down. They are badly run and this was demonstrated when we prosecuted all three for significant breaches of licence conditions."

A little under a decade ago, the same focus might not have been given to the clubs – back when City Road was just a dark hinterland linking Angel to the Old Street roundabout. However, now it's lined with shiny new apartments, office buildings and Jamie Oliver restaurants, the council have more to protect. These side effects of gentrification – a creeping civic conservatism – are being felt all over London; in December of 2013, for example, 200 police officers carried out a high profile raid on over 22 sex establishments in Soho – brothels, peep shows and strip clubs. Many were closed, and it looks like the same thing is set to happen in Islington.  

Councillor Convery described the cinemas as "sleazy", adding, "We’re not being prudish, we’re reflecting public opinion." It probably doesn't help that an undercover inspector at Mr B’s – before its recent revamp, where they gave it a lick of paint and introduced new membership cards – reportedly observed six men masturbating during an undercover visit. The inspector himself was allegedly touched on the thigh.

via www.vice.com

Interesting article about the Abcat Cine Club and Oscars on Caledonian Rd.

Maintenance to Kings Cross Environment website - Thursday 27 October

We've had practically zero downtime during the five years this site has been in operation.  We are doing some major maintenance to give us another good five years - a 50,000 mile service if you will.  We move www.kingscrossenvironment.com tomorrow from Typepad.com to Wordpress.com with the help of the folk from FolioVision.  The vast majority of you won't notice, beyond some cosmetic tweaks, one or two might not be able to see the site for an hour or so as the internet updates itself on where the www.kingscrossenvironment.com articles all live.    

For the technically minded we are redirecting the domain after having moved all the content (1200 posts, 1400 comments) from one service to another, Foliovision have been manhandling Typepad's appalling export service.  Once the DNS servers all update themselves during the day everything will return to normal, but on a better platform.  We are leaving Typepad because it isn't keeping up with the market any more and the new owners are ad-driven.

Help to replace fallen trees

John Ashwell has had a great response to the plea for help with replacing fallen trees on Wharfdale Road.

The collection is coming along well, and thank you for the generosity of residents thus far. John's hopeful that one of the nearby residential blocks will be sponsoring a tree. If that is the case, only a further £145 is needed to ensure both trees are planted with guards and a full 3-year watering contract.  

Please make your pledges to [email protected]

 

The Small Pox Hospital Kings Cross 1800

I picked this up print (cut out of an 1880 paper) on Amazon.

'Year printed c1880. Antique wood engraved print. This print was published in c1880 but please note that it depicts an earlier scene dated 1800 and the printmaker may have drawn on an earlier original work.'

'Rocque’s map of London (1769) shows the new smallpox hospital at Battle Bridge, where King’s Cross Station now stands.' 

Small pox was a horrendous condition.   These links lead to interesting resources on the small pox hospital .

King's Cross development site open this Saturday

The developers of King's Cross Central (ie the area behind the station) have asked if I could post the following: they're holding an open day for the site this Saturday from 11am to 4pm. If you want more of a stickybeak, you can book for a place on one of the guided tours at [email protected]

Clare Hill

Ghost Bike ceremony for Min Joo Lee - Wednesday 1830, York Way Pentonville Road junction

Word reaches me that there will be a ghost bike ceremony to mark the spot where Min Joo Lee died on Wednesday at 1830.  Location - junction of York Way and Pentonville Road.  I'll be there.

Kings Cross road safety in pictures - get the basics right

We used thousands of words to describe the problems at Kings Cross in the deadly junction complex at the bottom of York Way and the top of Grays Inn Road/Pentonville Road.  Here's a couple of pictures that tell a story taken this evening when i hung about there for 10 minutes at about 1815.

In this first picture you can see quite clearly that the street light doesn't work on the tiny over crowded pedestrian island, now unprotected by railings.  In the gloom it's very hard to see pedestrians darting about. It's always tricky to work out who is responsible for this sort of thing (it's a TfL road at the junction of Camden and Islington) but I'd guess it is Camden maintenance problem.

This second picture shows an all too common occurence - cars trying to fight their way across the box junction and not making it.  Then causing a hazard for everyone as vehicles from the other direction weave around them.  This is a nightmare for cyclists.  It's an offence too - as the highway code is pretty straightforward that you shouldn't enter a box junction unless your exit is clear.   It's another bit of poor design - it's hard to see the junction exit before you advance over the start line on the other side of the lighthouse building.  Wouldn't it be nice to have an old fashioned traffic police officer who hangs out at this junction at rush hour to sort out this sort of thing and be a deterrent.  Until TfL fix the junction.