Category Archives: Central developments

Introductory notes

Outline planning permission was granted in December 2006 for nearly 8 million sq ft of land to be called “King’s Cross Central”. This includes up to 25 large office buildings, 20 new streets, 10 new public spaces, the restoration and refurbishment of 20 historic buildings and structures, and up to 2,000 homes. The details are in the main planning application.

The planning permission requires the developer to implement a Section 106 Agreement. This identifies contributions to the neighbourhood that the developer must make when the development reaches certain stages. The sums of money and purposes of these contributions are summarised in extracts from the Section 106 Agreement.

The development comprises zones, each with a code, displayed on the block plan. Some of the existing and proposed buildings are identified on this rather outdated map.

The developers, Argent King’s Cross, provide some interactive maps, with descriptions of the buildings. They also produce a quarterly news letter that provides information about progress in the development.

The developers must apply for detailed planning permission for each part of the site, so planning processes, potentially including public consultations, must be followed before permission is granted. Responding with comments about the applications can be worthwhile even after the consultations have officially ended.

Almost all of the planning applications for King’s Cross Central are made to Camden Council. The planning reference number of the application in the system used by Camden Council typically takes the form yyyy/xxxx/P. The first four figures are the year; the following four identify the application and are issued consecutively through the year. The suffix ‘P’ means ‘general planning’; the suffix ‘L’ means ‘listed building application’.

To find details of an application and related documents, at Camden planning application searches put the full sequence of numbers and letters in the Application Number box directly under the heading ‘Search Criteria’ and press Return (Enter). This will typically produce one result, describing the application. Click on the planning reference number in that result to obtain a summary of the progress of the application. Click on ‘View Related documents’ at the bottom of that page to list the relevant documents.

The system used by Islington Council, at Islington planning application searches, is similar to that used by Camden Council, though its details are different.

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