Camley Street behind King's Cross station, North London, in 1984 before redevelopment began
The King's Cross and St Pancras areas of North London have undergone a fundamental redevelopment in recent years. King's Cross station was established in the mid nineteenth century and has long served as the southern terminus of the East Coast mainline railway. Next door and just to the east, St Pancras station consists of an elegant Victorian Grade 1 listed structure and served the Midlands and Yorkshire before entering a period of stagnation but has now been remodeled to function as the rail terminal serving the Continent via the Channel tunnel. The area behind the two stations has also undergone major changes and the distinctive Victorian gasometers, the narrow sooty cobbled streets, shabby industrial units and reputation for seediness is now becoming a flagship of urban regeneration offering public amenity space and a large number of new homes and businesses. These photograph show the difference between this area in the early 1980s when I had a studio there and the ongoing redevelopment that is still taking place. Urban change used to seem an incremental thing but now an entire landscape can be altered with alarming speed.
Size: 5100px × 3476px
Location: Camley Street behind King's Cross and St Pancras stations, London NW1
Photo credit: © John Heseltine / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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