Living in King's Cross: area guide to homes, schools and transport

A new quarter, with landmark homes, designer shops and the stylish Central Saint Martins buzz.
Daniel Lynch
Anthea Masey18 July 2018

On a sunny afternoon and into the early evening, there can be no doubting the huge success of the transformed King’s Cross.

Delighted children splash in the fountains in Granary Square in front of the Victorian warehouse that is now home to Central Saint Martins art school; couples gather on the stepped terrace overlooking Regent’s Canal ready to watch a film, while visitors stream out of the nearby stations, trying to grab an outside table at the many restaurants and bars that have opened in recent years.

This award-winning, mixed-use development, nearly 20 years in the making, took 67 acres of derelict railway lands behind King’s Cross station, once more famous for prostitution and a rubbish-strewn canal, and turned it into an entirely new neighbourhood for London with its very own postcode, N1C.

Developer Argent, and specifically designer Roger Madelin, set out to deliver 50 new buildings, 1,900 new homes, 20 new streets, 10 new public parks and squares and 26 acres of public space. Now the end is in sight — and it is a triumph.

The last residential block, Luma, is being built and only a handful of flats remain for sale in three flagship blocks within restored iron gasholder frames.

A new retail hub opens in October at Coal Drops Yard in the converted Victorian coal stores. First in, the furniture, lighting and accessories designer Tom Dixon will soon be joined by Paul Smith; tapas restaurant Barrafina; menswear brands Form & Thread and Universal Works, and designer specs brand Cubitts.

At the end of the year South Korean electronics giant Samsung opens a “digital playground” under the Thomas Heatherwick-designed roofs that sweep above the coal drops. And to the east of King’s Boulevard, Google is building its 990,000sq ft “landscraper”, an 11-storey building that will be longer than the Shard is tall, with a running track on the roof.

Quiet spots include a newly planted path down to the canal designed by star gardener Dan Pearson with a stunning field of yellow yarrow, while the Skip Garden Kitchen teaches local youngsters to grow food.

King’s Cross is two miles from Trafalgar Square with Camden Town to the north; Islington to the east; Bloomsbury and Clerkenwell to the south and Euston to the west. Knight Frank sales chief Keir Waddell says: “It’s an exciting place. People are buying because they positively want to live here.”

The wider King’s Cross area is more than just new-build flats
Daniel Lynch

The property scene

Knight Frank's Keir Waddell says the wider King’s Cross area is more than just new-build flats. There are Georgian houses nearby and in Bloomsbury and Barnsbury.

The Lloyd Baker Estate off Grays Inn Road has flat-fronted early Victorian villas. Around York Way and overlooking Battlebridge Basin there are converted warehouses.

Keystone Crescent off Caledonian Road is a quaint Victorian terrace where residents have erected a plaque explaining the history.

There are two estates of social housing designed in the post-war years by modernist hero Berthold Lubetkin where “right-to-buy” flats are occasionally for sale: the Priory Green Estate off Calshot Street and Bevin Court in Cruikshank Street.

The most expensive home for sale is a three-bedroom flat priced at £4.55million in St Pancras Chambers, the conversion of the Sir George Gilbert Scott-designed Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras station.

Elsewhere, a four-bedroom Georgian house in Guildford Street is £3,295,000 and a 2,400sqft warehouse conversion in Albert Dock overlooking Battlebridge Basin is on at £2.5million.

This award-winning, mixed-use development, nearly 20 years in the making, took 67 acres of derelict railway lands behind King’s Cross station, once more famous for prostitution and a rubbish-strewn canal, and turned it into an entirely new neighbourhood 
Daniel Lynch

What's new?

Ardent’s flagship Gasholders London scheme has 145 move-in ready studios and flats in three circular blocks in the middle of three restored Victorian gasholders in Lewis Cubitt Square.

Designed by Wilkinson Eyre, studios start at £825,000 with one-bedroom flats at £950,000, two-bedroom flats at £1.35 million and three-bedroom flats at £2.7 million.

Visit gasholderslondon.co.uk or call Knight Frank on 020 3691 3969. There is one penthouse left at The Plimsoll Building and two- and three-bedroom flats in Fenman House starting at £1,425,000. Contact 020 3691 3969 or call Knight Frank on 020 7861 5499.

Luma, Ardent’s final residential block, is selling off-plan for completion mid-2020. Out of 61 flats, 20 remain, with two-bedroom homes from £1.3million and three-bedroom flats at £2,025,000.

Onyx is a Taylor Wimpey scheme of 117 one-, two- and three-bedroom flats, of which 38 are affordable, in Camley Street overlooking Regent’s Canal.

One-bedroom flats start at £910,000, with two-bedroom flats from £1.3 million and three-bedroom flats at £1,135,000. The first residents are expected to move in this October. Contact 020 3930 1417.

King’s Cross Quarter by Regal London has 118 flats in Pentonville Road, with two-bedroom flats from £1.38 million and three-bedroom penthouses at £2.68 million. Contact 020 8012 7836.

Affordable homes

Housing Association One Housing Group has studios, one- and two-bedroom shared-ownership homes at Camley Street and St Pancras in Grays Inn Road. Call 020 8502 5758.

Renting

Lettings manager Mark Batty of Knight Frank says King’s Cross is a popular rental area with wealthy students at Central Saint Martins and UCL, and with young professionals from the tech sector — Google has offices in the area.

Many of Batty’s landlords are buy-to-let investors from the Far East who bought off-plan, typically owning up to 10 flats. The rental yield is between three and four per cent.

Staying power

Estate agent Keir Waddell of Knight Frank says few buyers ask about local schools. However, there has been demand for additional places at a new primary school, the King’s Cross Academy, established in the Plimsoll Building.

Postcode

N1C is the new King’s Cross postcode which covers the regeneration area. To the west, King’s Cross is in the large N1 Islington postcode and to the south it’s in the WC1 central London postcode.

Best roads

Gasholders London is the flagship development.

Up and coming

Keir Waddell says the surrounding King’s Cross area has some catching-up to do. The price per square foot in Gasholders London is about £1,950 compared to £1,350-£1,450 in the streets around the regeneration area.

Council

Camden council is Labour controlled. Band D council tax for 2018/2019 is £1,448.43.

Transport

There is nowhere better connected in London, with King’s Cross and St Pancras main line stations. St Pancras International effectively has four separate stations under one roof — Eurostar for the Continent; Midland Main Line; Thameslink for cross-London trains and High Speed 1 platforms for trains to Kent.

Six Tube lines converge at King’s Cross: the Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan, Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines. All stations are in Zone 1 and an annual travelcard costs £1,364.

Lifestyle

Shops and restaurants

Chef Marcus Wareing is in charge at The Gilbert Scott bar and restaurant in the grandeur of the St Pancras Renaisssance Hotel.

King’s Cross enjoys a buzzy restaurant scene, with plenty of outside tables at the German Gymnasium in a restored Victorian gym between St Pancras and King’s Cross stations, serving what it describes as Mittel-European-inspired dishes; a branch of Australian all-day restaurant, Granger & Co; wine bar Vinoteca, and Indian Dishoom where queuing seems to be part of the fun — the first three are in King’s Boulevard, while Dishoom is in Stable Street.

Caravan, an all-day restaurant and coffee roaster in Granary Square, was the first restaurant to open in the King’s Cross development. The Lighterman, overlooking Granary Square, is a popular pub with a first-floor terrace.

Canopy market is open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday offering fresh produce, coffee, craft beers, live music and street food under the West Handyside Canopy off Granary Square, next to Waitrose and its cookery school.

For fashion, Jigsaw, & Other Stories and Carhartt WIP have branches in King’s Boulevard. Furniture, lighting and accessories designer Tom Dixon has already opened in Coal Drops Yard, soon to be joined by others.

There are also shops and cafés outside the regeneration area. Cubitts, the designer spectacle makers, are in Caledonian Road as are Trident Pottery, a local pottery that celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, and Drink Shop & Do, a café and bar combined with a wide selection of wacky events.

Keystone Crescent is a tucked-away members-only drinking club (membership is £35) through an anonymous-looking door in Keystone Crescent; it stays open to 4am on Fridays and Saturdays.

Open space

Since long before the bulldozers arrived, Camley Street Natural Park, run by the London Wildlife Trust, has been educating the capital’s children about the natural world and thankfully the facility has survived.

Much of the regeneration site is traffic-free, which benefits the 26 acres of new parks including one formed inside the fourth gasholder, plus the squares and open spaces including green routes through the site.

Leisure and the arts

There have been sell-out film festivals on the steps of Regent’s Canal and music events in Cubitt Square. The Everyman cinema is on Handyside Street.

The House of Illustration on Granary Square holds exhibitions and events; the same goes for the nearby Francis Crick Institute, the British Library and The Wellcome Collection.

Schools

Primary school

The new King’s Cross Academy primary school opened in the Plimsoll Building in 2015 and was recently inspected by Ofsted, which found it “good with outstanding features”.

All but one of the surrounding state primary schools are rated “good” or better by the education watchdog. Primary schools judged to be “outstanding” are St Mary & St Pancras in Werrington Street and Richard Cobden in Camden Street.

Comprehensive

The “outstanding” local comprehensive is Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (girls, ages 11 to 16) in Donegal Street. Regent High (co-ed, ages 11 to 18 in Chalton Street and Maria Fidelis RC (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Phoenix Road are rated “good”.

Further afield there are three “outstanding” girls’ schools, all with sixth forms: Camden School for Girls in Sandall Road, Kentish Town; Highbury Fields in Highbury Hill and St Marylebone CofE in Marylebone High Street. Central Foundation Boys’ School (ages 11 to 18) in Cowper Street in the Old Street area is also “outstanding”.

City of London Academy (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Prebend Street and the all-through St Mary Magdalene Academy (co-ed, ages four to 18) in Liverpool Road, both in Islington, are judged to be “good”.

Higher education

Capital City College (co-ed, ages 14-plus) in Longford Street is a Further Education College rated “good”. Specialist Designated College, The Working Men’s College (co-ed, 16-plus) in Crowndale Road is judged to be “outstanding”; it offers part-time, full-time, daytime, evening and weekend courses for adults (aged 19+) in art, design, fashion, textile and more.

Private

The nearby private primary and preparatory schools are: The Gower School (co-ed, ages 0 to 11) a Montessori school in Cynthia Street, Barnsbury; Dania School (co-ed, ages two to 11) in Westbourne Road in Holloway is Danish/English bilingual school; North Bridge House (co-ed, ages seven to 18) in Gloucester Avenue in Camden Town, and Dallington School (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Dallington Street in Clerkenwell.

The private secondary and all-through schools are: North Bridge House Senior Canonbury (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Canonbury Place; Southbank International Westminster (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) and Portland Place (co-ed, ages eight to 18), both in Portland Place in the West End; Queen’s College (girls, ages four to 18) in Harley Street, also in the West End; City of London School for Girls (co-ed, ages seven to 18) in St Giles Terrace in the Barbican; Wetherby Senior (boys, ages 11 to 18) in Marylebone Lane; Francis Holland (girls, ages 11 to 18) in Clarence Gate in Regent’s Park, and City of London (boys, ages 10 to 18) in Queen Victoria Street in the City.

There are three French/English bilingual schools catering for London’s French community: École Jeannine Manuel (co-ed, ages three to 18) in Bedford Square in Fitzrovia; L’École Internationale Franco-Anglaise (ages two to 18) in Portland Place and Collège Français Bilingue de Londres (co-ed, age five to 16) in Holmes Road in Kentish Town.