kingscrossaccess

The case for this campaign

Click here to see a short but detailed presentation giving the reasons this campaign exists.

Click here to see a short but detailed presentation giving the reasons this campaign exists.

A sad day approaches...

As the scaffolding on the eastern side of King's Cross Station is taken down, the day the north eastern exit closes comes ever closer. 

It won't be too long now... The Eastern Range is looking wonderful - new fittings, paintwork and spruced up brickwork revealing the warm golden glow of London stock bricks. Now we need to really press all the powers that be - the Government, Transport for London and the Greater London Assembly, Network Rail, LB Camden and LB Islington to get together to find the funds to replace our long-lost bridge at the junction of York Way and Wharfdale Road to replace the current entrance there. LB Islington are doing all they can (see Tribune article below), now what about everyone else?  

Contact us if you can give any time, experience or expertise to the campaign to open up King's Cross Station.

Islington Tribune 30 January 2009

Campaign to meet in March

With spring on the horizon, local campaigners are getting set to plan out the strategy to create a walking and cycling route from the Angel to Marylebone, all away from the dangerously high emission zone of the A501 ring road. To do this, we need to get the powers that be to build a bridge across the tracks at the rear of King's Cross Station. 

 

If you have any time, expertise or experience you can give to the campaign, do contact us. If you can make our meeting early evening 3rd March all the better (contact us for details). If we don't see you there, hope to hear from you soon!

Urgent - walking/cycling gets the heave ho at KX Central

Behind King's Cross Station one of the biggest regeneration programmes in Europe is underway: King's Cross Central, developer: Argent. Argent's planning application for the new Sainsbury's HQ is with LB Camden and the committee meeting to consider the application takes place at Camden Town Hall this Thursday - very sorry for the short notice, entirely my fault. 

One big problem with this unimaginative building is the complete lack of thought that has been given to pedestrians and cyclists - this seems to be a recurring theme in and around King's Cross. You can help raise awareness about this by putting in a very short comment to Camden saying the pavements need to be wider and more thought needs to be given generally to pedestrians and cyclists using the new streets surrounding Sainsbury's HQ.

A template response can be found on the King's Cross Development Forum website. Feel free to use this as the basis for your own response - just jiggle it into your own words and submit it online here with a copy to the Development Forum.

The case for this campaign

Click here to see a short but detailed presentation giving the reasons this campaign exists.

Network Rail in communications debarcle - again!

To Alastair Metcalfe

Network Rail

27 December 2008

Thankyou for circulating the letter last week regarding works to remove the Handyside Bridge at King's Cross Station. One small point, I live in a block of flats. I realise for many commuters, including those working for Network Rail, the concept of living in an inner city block of flats is likely to be somewhat foreign, however it would be very helpful if next time a letter is circulated to give warning of disruptions resulting from works it is circulated to each flat. I was fortunate enough to pick up the single letter delivered to our entire block which was addressed to 'The Occupier'. I then pinned the letter up on the wall so that everyone could see it - however it could so easily have been opened by any other tenant who may not have been so community spirited in ensuring that all occupiers got to see the contents.

I wonder if ypu might be able to find out whether Ian Fry ever intends to reply to my letter to him dated 7 October 2008 (a copy of which can be seen at http://www.kingscrossaccess.com/2008/10/letter-to-netwo.html). This is the second time a letter sent to Ian has taken several months to elicit even an acknowledgement. I have before asked whether Network Rail's espoused policy of community engagement is a one way street, with Network Rail telling us what is going to happen rather than asking our views or responding to points we make. This latest example of one-way communication seems to confirm my worst fears. If there is anything you can do to help get a response to my letter which raises critical points about Network Rail's propensity to double-speak I would be very grateful indeed.

Sophie Talbot

Phil Jeffries

As a direct result of Phil Jeffries campaign work, King's Cross is a better place than it would have been without him. 

Further, the Channel Tunnel Rail Link is a better design than it would have been without him. 

And those are just two examples of the difference he made to our community.

Phil died of cancer last week and all involved in this campaign I'm sure would want to mark his passing. A full obituary will appear on our parent site on Sunday. Anyone wishing to share their memories of Phil and good wishes for his partner Diana, please leave your comments on that site. 

Meanwhile, Phils obituary has been published on King's Cross Development Forum's site and on King's Cross Railway Lands Group site. 

He will be very, very sorely missed both by those close to him and by those, like me, who have benefited from his work from a distance. Our thoughts are with Diana...

If I was a rich man....

A friend of mine recently posed this question as she was working on some exercises based on Fiddler on the Roof at drama school. It got me thinking.... 

One thing I'd love to do is to buy the entire Zone A plot of King's Cross Central, then chair a partnership with Argent, Network Rail, LB Camden and LB Islington to turn the lot - Zone A plus a wide bridge across the tracks at the back of King's Cross Station (like Exchange Square at Liverpool St Station), into a huge public open space complete with waterfall, kids play areas, youth hang out zones, permanent memorials to Lisa Pontecorvo and Phil Jeffries, space for a bit of street theatre, viewing platform for train enthusiasts, space for Camley Street to raise awareness about local urban wildlife, really attractive and grabbing signage to Somers Town and South Caledonian Road, little plaques explaining local history and showing where buildings like Culross used to be and why they were important, and much, much more. 

Now that really would be a community gain!!!

Correction!

The posting 'The Case for Battlebridge Crossing' below originally appeared with no specific mention of the great deal of support provided to this campaign by the Liberal Democrats at local, regional and national levels. Since first appearing it has been amended. Very many apologies, it was entirely my fault - never rush a posting!

Petition about to hit 1000

With your help we'll get there... please sign the petition. It's a three stage process: 1. You sign. 2. You get sent a confirmation email. 3. You reply to the confirmation email. Until you've completed step 3 your signature will not appear. Thanks!