Thomas Heatherwick -lead Heatherwick Studio- has won planning permission to convert a Victorian coal yard in London's King's Cross into a canal-side shopping destination. Located next to Regent's Canal, Coal Drops Yard will include approximately 65 shops, including five large stores as well as restaurants, galleries, music venues and a new public square.
"Over a two-year restoration and build process, Londoners will see the existing Victorian buildings – the East and West Coal Drops and Wharf Road Arches – refurbished and re-purposed in a way that creates a stunning new upper level and improves connectivity, whilst allowing the original forms and functions to be read.
We are thrilled to finally bring this extraordinary and largely unknown Victorian industrial site into public use for the first time. These two historic structures were never originally designed for people to circulate through and by themselves would have never made a successful retail destination if we did nothing more than clean them and fill them with shops; the distance between them being too great to have any social chemistry with each other and only two stories of activity would not create enough busy-ness and vitality. So rather than adding an entirely foreign new structure to connect the old buildings, we chose simply to bend and stitch the two roofs together, forming another level of activity underneath, and framing and weather-protecting a dynamic new public space for the city,” says the architects.
The 9,300-square-metre project was commissioned by property developer Argent and is being led by King's Cross Central Limited Partnership (KCCLP), which is overseeing the wider redevelopment of the area.
"Coal Drops Yard has been designed to be a shopping experience unlike any other. the design by Heatherwick Studio is a considered response to the important Victorian industrial buildings from the 1850s; in fact, the ability for future visitors to the Coal Drops Yard to appreciate the history and various functions of these buildings has been fundamental to the design process." said Morwenna Hall, senior projects director for Argent.
