Kings Cross square started out so well with a couple of decent food shops, but they both moved on. The independent hot-dog emporium Coffee Dogs, closed a while ago and its ‘egg pod’ site is vacant (above). The hot dogs were great and it’s not often you can say that in the UK. A Pret is moving in there now (see Camden planning application for the signage). Perhaps this will help the always overworked Pret on the Pentonville Road.
At the front of the square was a Giraffe Kiosk that has now become a Doddle parcel drop-off (Doddle is a Network Rail joint-venture).
In the meantime, the food market stalls continue to be a lovely addition – both for their fayre but also breaking up and adding variety to Stanton Williams drab granite sheet – a rare piece of architecture that looks better when it is wet. Maybe the stalls are robbing from the fixed outlets, or suffering from the seasonal curse of having no under cover seating. Or maybe the fixed outlets fell foul of that typical London practice of a heavily discounted first year or so and then were unable to make it pay when a ‘market rent’ came in.
Cycle path? The cycle path that was installed on Pancras Way caused the removal of the bus stops closest to St. Pancras Hospital. Is that the idea, to make disabled people walk a little further? It is a disgrace and anyway, due to the double set of traffic lights, cyclists have to come OFF the cycle path to stop at the lights, the whole thing is a disgrace.