King's Cross Redevelopment: Then And Now

M@
By M@

Last Updated 31 January 2025

King's Cross Redevelopment: Then And Now
Japanese Knotweed sign
This photo was taken in 2008 from the spot that is now the top of King's Boulevard. Reader, I touched the sign. Image: Matt Brown

The old railway lands behind King's Cross have changed almost beyond recognition in recent years. With some caveats, most people seem to agree that this is an example of regeneration done well. (Although many still mourn the loss of the nightclubs.)

I've been a regular visitor to the area for 20 years, and worked right next to the site in the late Noughties. So I thought I'd dig out some of my archive photos and retake them on the same spots today.

1. The "Bomb Gap"

The bomb gap at Kings cross in 2008 and 2025
2008 and 2025. Images: Matt Brown

The views above show King's Cross station looking east, in 2008 and 2025. The key change here is — clearly — the construction of the saucer-shaped concourse, a vast improvement on the crummy old canopy that blighted the entrance on Euston Road (see below).

Less well-known is the story of what lies behind. The 2008 image shows two yellow-brick Victorian structures, with fresh infill between. What we're looking at is the repair of the "bomb gap". This wound in the station had stood vacant since 11 May 1941, when a high explosive hit the range, killing nine.

If you head into the concourse today, the plugged bomb gap is fairly easy to spot. Seek out the newer-looking bricks around the Waitrose, just to the right of "Platform 9 3/4".

2. King's Boulevard

King's Boulevard in King's Cross London over 17 years
2008, 2011, 2025. Images: Matt Brown

In 2011, London gained a new street and a new postcode. King's Boulevard, N1C, cut through the former railway lands as a direct route between the stations and the Granary Building, soon to become Central St Martins College. These three images are taken from almost the same spot on Goods Way, now at the top end of the boulevard.

When we covered the opening in 2011, we noted that the construction hoardings would stick around for "the next few years". Little did we suspect that, 14 years on, the hoardings along the eastern side would still be in place. The massive Google building has languished in development hell for all that time. It is now, finally, looking almost complete, having won its battle with Old Street roundabout as London's most interminable construction project.

3. Gasholder number 8

Before and after of a gasholder site in Kings Cross
2008 and 2025. Images: Matt Brown

Behold the majesty of King's Cross's largest gasholder. In 2008, it was dismantled and eventually replaced by the most industrial-looking of the new-builds (left) along with Camden Council's building (right). The old gasholder wouldn't stay dismantled for long, however...

4. Gasholder Park

Gasholders in Kings cross
2013 and 2025. Images: Matt Brown

Here, we're on the Regent's Canal on similarly grey days in 2013 and 2025. In the distance, the mighty Gasholder number 8 is re-emerging on the skyline in a slightly different spot. It would eventually be converted into Gasholder Park. This might qualify as London's smallest named park, but makes up for it with its dazzling novelty — a circle of grass engirdled in steel, with mirrors and hillocks around the circumference, to the great delight of pre-schoolers and Instagrammers. As you can see, lots of flats have also sprung up in the meantime including (not pictured) three drum-shaped blocks within smaller gasholders.

5. King's Cross station's crappy old concourse

Two views of the front of King's Cross station
2012 and 2025. Images: Matt Brown

Oh, how we universally loathed the poisonous green canopy that once besmirched the front of King's Cross. Fellow northerners will wince to remember the hours spent queueing around its zigzags for the GNERs, asking the person in front if they'd hold your place while you popped into WH Smith to grab a Mars bar. (Or was that just me?)

This wretched frontispiece was swept away at the end of the Noughties, with the advent of the new circular concourse. Lewis Cubitt's original 'batwing' frontage can now be enjoyed in all its glory. Well, that was the theory. From this angle, the reworked tube entrance and tent-city of street food vendors are just as obstructive to the view as the old canopy.

6. Waitrose

Waitrose before and after in Kings Cross
2015 and 2025. Images: Matt Brown

This is the Waitrose to the east of Granary Square. Bit of a dull one, but it's in my photo archive, so I might as well include it for any Waitrose fans out there.

7. The Parcel Yard

The Parcel Yard pub in 2011 and 2025
2011 and 2025. Apologies, but I couldn't get quite the right angle here, thanks to a group of diners just to the right foreground. Images: Matt Brown

Have you ever turned up to a pub uncomfortably early? In 2011, I managed to get to the bar of the Parcel Yard before they'd even built it. The popular drinking den inside King's Cross station opened in 2012, inside the old parcel-handling facility, hence the name. Many of the original features have been retained though, as you can see, much plaster work and mock-finishing was undertaken to make the place fit for 21st century hospitality.