King’s Cross used to strike fear and loathing into the hearts of the capital’s more upstanding citizens: in the 1980s, the area was a byword for filth, squalor and vice.
But after a 20-year, £3bn regeneration scheme by the developer Argent, the no-go area has become a go-to neighbourhood — a place where Londoners want to linger, not loiter.
So much so that Granary Square, a new public space, has become the standard-bearer for place-making, that term much abused by urban planners and developers.
