A proxy place for other people’s profits

• READERS will have noticed signs and protests against rapid development in Somers Town, with swathes of demolition and rebuilding, loss of a park and some huge projects in the pipeline, including the British Library extension with 600,000 sq ft office complex, HS2 works and Crossrail 2’s Euston-St Pancras station.

Some of us have had occasion to wonder if Somers Town itself is to be eradicated as an inconvenient chunk of working class social housing that obstructs the realisation of what newcomer Local Globe calls a potential new Palo Alto or Silicon Valley.

This week our fears of obliteration took on visible form. Advertising hoardings appeared around the base of the construction site of the 22-storey luxury tower block, the unimaginatively named Grand Central Apartments, where “iconic” living can be bought into, if you have a spare few million quid.

“Made of King’s Cross”, the hoarding proclaims. King’s Cross is now a brand, of course, and it sells well to overseas investors. What an insult to our historic, if under-resourced, area that becomes nothing but a proxy place for other people’s profits.

ESTHER LESLIE
Crowndale Road, NW1