The Times reported last week that yet another attempt is being made to breathe some life into one of London’s most infamous areas. The area behind King’s Cross station.
It seems very interesting timing on the part of these brave developers, given the huge hole the construction industry has been in lately. The plan they have is set to transform the area and create as many as 2000 new homes. The extra exciting part of this project is that apparently 40 percent of these will be earmarked for first time home buyers.
As well as these new homes the development is also said to contain some ambitious plans for new shops, galleries and restaurants.
Several groups of people are putting the money forward for this huge project. King’s Cross Central Limited Partnership — a group composed of Argent Group, London and Continental Railways and DHL Supply Chain — has stumped up £150 million for Phase 1 of the project. The University of the Arts London, which will have a campus on the site for Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, has provided a further £100 million.
The first of these new homes are said to be likely to be completed and up for sale in 2012.
This kind of thing has been tried before in this area, to no avail, but probably not on this scale. It would be great to see such a bold plan really take off.
