The Regent's Canal has a new bridge. It's called the Somers Town Bridge and it looks like this.
The span links Camley Street Natural Park — a small pocket of greenery and wildlife — into the wider King's Cross redevelopment. It's designed for pedestrians and cyclists, with gentle approach gradients that'll help wheelchair and buggy users. You'll find the bridge beside St Pancras Lock.
It is simple in form — a horizontal beam with a gentle curve along the sides. It fits in well with the post-industrial chic that surrounds it.
Here's the fellow being lowered into place earlier in 2017.
The eastern end of the bridge leads to Gasholder Park (turn left, though not open at time of writing) or Granary Square (turn right). The latter route takes you along a winding, landscaped track between the canal and the old coal sheds. Here, you can take in the coalescing roofs of the new Coal Drops shopping centre, designed by Thomas Heatherwick. It's shaping up to be a stunner... as shopping centres go.
The western end leads, via a curling ramp, down to Camley Street Natural Park. Funny to note: Thomas Heatherwick's Garden Bridge might not be going ahead, but here we have a bridge that leads to a Heatherwick structure one way, and greenery the other.
We lingered for 10 minutes and encountered only a couple of other people. That's not surprising. The track to the eastern end of the bridge is (temporarily) tricky to find from Granary Square, while the western end (Camley Street) is little used by pedestrians, other than those who already know about the Natural Park. Footfall will increase as more residents move into the area and the hoardings come down.
