The points are Argyle Sq.  - Lukham Street – Cromer St – Harrison St – Seaford Street  - rear of Kingsway College –  Heathcote St. – Mecklenburgh Square –  Doughty Street –  John Street –  Theobalds Road.  The suggestion to open the little road up was mentioned in our Kings Cross Environment mapping survey”Danger Map”  for cycling and pedestrian safety improvements in and around Kings Cross.  Camden has promised to integrate points raised in their action planning, and Seaford Street is one of its integrals.

They’ve written up everything that happened during the consultation process, including all the feedback they received, and the resulting report in pdf format can be downloaded here.

The local charity hopes to complete the project by the end of this summer.

The Mayor (and also Chair of TfL) is questioned by Caroline Pigeon AM about his sudden conversion to cycle safety, from 40 minutes in.  Caroline Pigeon AM gently mocks the Mayor’s giant flip flop on a review.  But despite repeated questioning the Mayor gives no timetable for his review of dangerous junctions.  At 43:30 she tried to pin the Mayor down to specific actions, timetables and commitments from his panicky review – but the Mayor just dodges sideways refusing to give any hints on a time table or guarantees that work will happen following the review.

The Mayor puts an unsubstantiated price tag of £150m on the overal work to make London a city safe for cycling and sets up a strategic position that he may have to go back to central government for the money.  The key question to ask here is how TfL over the years has superintended investment in cycling safety and safety of human life on the roads  so badly over ten years including four under this Mayor’s control that there is now an £150m funding gap.  In a curious symmetry the Boris Bike scheme will cost about £160million.

It’s worth contrasting the Mayor’s statement in this question time that:

‘(we are) doing everything we can to intervene in the road network in such a way as to make London more cycle friendly’

With his dismissive stance in the questions to TfL (of which he is Chair) last Autumn:

‘You have got to be honest and sometimes, Caroline, it is not the case that you could materially affect the outcome by engineering. You have got to be honest about this. You cannot just tell people that it can all be magically changed simply by rebuilding roads –’

‘O tempora, o mores’ as the Mayor might say.

The boys, who are all from estates around Caledonian Road, have been spending their weekends learning to grow fruit and veg in the skips to sell them on to local businesses.

Now the CBBC documentary series My Life will be devoting a Home Grown Boys episode to the teens’ innovative thinking, as it follows them trying to hit a £400 profit target in five days.

• Home Grown Boys will be shown on Wednesday, February 22, on BBC1, at 4.30pm”

Taken from the Islington Tribune 17 February 2012

Bikes Alive, the recently-formed network of cyclists who are taking non-violent direct action, returns to the lethal road junction outside Kings Cross station at 6.30pm on Monday evening, 20 February … as Transport for London (TfL) starts work to change the junction for the worse. Cyclists and pedestrians will enforce another one-hour go-slow at the junction outside Kings Cross station.

Work to re-align some kerb lines and remove a traffic island will increase the flow of motor vehicles through a key part of the junction, introducing new dangers for cyclists. (For more detailed information on this, see the discussions on these two web pages:
kingscrossenvironment.com/TFL fails to meet own standards/
and kingscrossenvironment.com/TFL improvements make things worse

Bikes Alive – which works with other vulnerable, non-motorised road users – is pledged to continue to take action until the balance of power on London’s roads is changed. Current policies of Transport for London (TfL) prioritise the speed and volume of motor traffic over all else.

Councillors from both boroughs which cover Kings Cross (Camden and Islington), as well as local cycling campaigns and community groups, have been calling for safety improvements at Kings Cross for years. The London Assembly has repeatedly called on mayor Boris Johnson – who is in charge of TfL – to act. But all to no avail. 

The regular ‘go-slow’ events organised by Bikes Alive in King’s Cross have a light hearted party atmosphere. Join in this Monday at 6.30pm for one hour to add your voice to the call for safe roads in KX.

Whether you are a pedestrian, cyclist or motorist you are welcome. Safe roads designed for all road users is the aim here.

A 613 bus to Holborn turns into Gray's Inn Rd from the front of KX Station

Born in Acton Street, Shamus has put together the most beguiling set of photos of KX back in the 30s, 40s and 50s. He describes each in amazing detail. It’s strange to see buses going up Balfe Street, trolley buses on KX Bridge Road, bubble cars next to old style taxis, cobblestones outside the station and no gyratory!!!

Bravington’s jewellers on Pentonville Road is there, now all that’s left of them are the brass letters in the ground at Regent’s Quarter. The block of flats where I live is there, it was a massive stationery manufacturing company. T. G. Lynes is where Interpost is now on the very south end of The Cally, not in its more recent position just north of what was the Malt and Hops and is now Be@One KX.

The clothes people are wearing when walking up the Gray’s Inn Road are rather stylish, and it must have been marvellous going to the Century Cinema in the golden age of film – it’s now the Camden Town Hall eggbox extension.

KX coach station on Crestfield Street, gas street lights in front of the old gasometers near Goodsway, the real Euston Station with it’s fantastic archway and so much more is superbly documented in a Flickr account we cannot recommend highly enough. Thankyou Shamus, thankyou so very much.