2 the Site and Its Context

16 2 The Site and its Context

Architecture Masterplanning Design 17 18 2 The Site and its Context 2.1 Location

The site is located on York Way in the London Borough of Islington, 15 minutes walk north of Kings Cross Central in a rapidly evolving local context.

The site 196-228 York Way, London N7 9AH occupies a frontage on York Way between Tileyard Road to the north and Vale Royal to the south and is located within the Vale Royal/Brewery Road Locally Significant Industrial Area.N

The site is not located within a Conservation Area, nor are there any listed buildings within, or in close proximity to, the application site.

The existing site comprises three separate parcels of land; 22-23 Tileyard Road building on the north, Fayers Plumbers merchants to the centre and the EGG nightclub to the south on Vale Royal. The site is set in an LSIS and the general architectural character of the site’s immediate context is light industrial with buildings ranging from early 20th century to post war. The scale is varied ranging from single storey to six storeys and the quality of architecture is modest.

To the west of the locally significant industrial site (LSIS), the area is predominately residential. The area includes the recently constructed extension to Maiden Lane; Camden’s Maiden Lane Housing and, further north London’s Stock Brick terraces.

Transport diagram site plan showing boundary of the York Way site in red. Aerial image of Kings Cross Central to the south

Design and Access Statement, May 2018 | v2.0 Architecture Masterplanning Design Tileyard Studios building | 228 york way, kings cross Big Yellow self storage | 196 - 226 york way, kings cross 19 Alexandra Palace

O2 Forum

The Underworld Sang Bleu Roundhouse London Electric Ballroom Queen KOKO Elizabeth The O2 The Oval Olympic Park Lexington Academy Space Victoria Park Islington XOYO LSO St Luke’s The Old Barbican Truman Centre Brewery

London Palladium

Heaven

Royal Albert Hall The O2

Ministry of Sound

Tileyard Studios offer a strategic location to all entertainment businesses

O2 Academy Architecture Masterplanning Design Brixton 20 Electric Brixton 2 The Site and its Context 2.2 Local Employment & Strategic Importance to London

Tileyard Studios is a major creative industry cluster with an emphasis on music, music technology and entertainment.

The scheme proposed at 196 - 228 York Way will provide high quality employment space, propagating the success of Tileyard Studios whilst also providing much needed warehousing capacity for the growing numbers of residents and businesses in the borough and beyond.

Tileyard Studios has strong links with local schools and organise apprenticeships for young people in the Borough who want to pursue a career in the music industry.

The spatial development strategy for London is set out in the London Plan (2016). Paragraph 4.32 of this document confirms that London’s cultural and creative sectors are central to the city’s economic and social success. The GLA has estimated that the creative industries contribute £32bn to London’s economy annually, representing one in six new jobs. The former Mayor’s Cultural Strategy also recognises the significance of the cultural and creative sectors in making London a world city, and advocates continued support and investment.

This development will allow the plethora of creative individuals and businesses at Tileyard Studios to continue to thrive, whilst also providing an increase of employment land, including flexible workspace to support existing and future SMEs. It is therefore considered to sharply align with the Mayor and Deputy Mayor’s aspirations for London.

“There are few if any places on earth that can rival our city for its creative industries. Culture is in the DNA of the capital but we cannot be complacent…” (The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan)

“Artists and creative people are like the advance party — they find the unusual places that no one sees much value in and they breathe life into them. We can’t underestimate the value they bring to the capital’s character, identity and success. The trick is to find a way to allow them to put down roots in the areas they have played such an important role in establishing…” (Deputy Mayor for Culture and Creative Industries, Justine Simons)

A glimpse at the companies, initiatives and famous artists that blossomed within the Tileyard Studios cluster.

Moscow Copenhagen

Warsaw Berlin

Paris

Zagreb

New York Ibiza Beijing Nashville Los Angeles Seoul Tokyo

New Delhi

Shanghai

Bangkok

Johannesburg

Sydney

Tileyard Studios connections span all over the world

Architecture Masterplanning Design 22 2 The Site and its Context 2.3 Local Employment with Global reach

The Tileyard cluster has a keen strategic importance to London due to its central location and its role in the music industry

Tileyard Studios has gone from 100 employees in 2007 to 1500 employees in 2017. Its growth, expansion and success is due to many factors: first of all its central location and proximity to Kings Cross St Pancras. Being so well connected with the tube and railway system, Tileyard offers a more than convenient location for international networking with artists and businesses from all over the world.

Its connections spread all over the world and interest a wide range of fields: from music to technology, from movies to theatre.

The main connections are established in Europe, especially France, Germany (with its Berlin music scene), Belgium, Spain (Ibiza), Poland, Russia and Croatia particularly for electronic music. There are strong links to Scandinavia: Stockholm and Copenhagen are key city partners. Tileyard has very strong links to the USA: key territories are Los Angeles, Nashville, Austin and New York. As far as Asia is concerned: China is a very important market for Tileyard’s music, theatre and tech; Japan and Korea are a key export markets; there are a few relationships with the film scenery in India and with the main South East Asian music and entertaining companies. There are also connections with Australia and South Africa but more about technology industries.

Its central location in London made Tileyard one of the most convenient places to feed into London music scene. Camden and Shoreditch districts

Sydney are famous for their music and entertainment events and Tileyard studios hub is located just in the middle of the two districts, offering a strategic location to all entertainment businesses.

‘The British Beehive’, etching by George Cruikshank, England, 1867, Museum no. 9779.6

The proposals respond to and address current demand for commercial floor space on the estate and the local area.

It is intended that the new office building would seek to balance demand for commercial floorspace to provide a range of employment spaces. Tileyard Estate’s ethos is one of “incubation to floatation, and everywhere in between” as demonstrated by Propercorn - a true Tileyard success story.

In addition to Propercorn, there are 4 further case studies of enquiries for larger floor spaces at Tileyard Studios in the last 18 months to 2 years. The 5 case studies illustrate a specific demand of circa. 65,000 sq.ft in the locality that represents 75% of the floor space proposed. These enquiries indicate demand for grow on floor space to support a range of tenant profiles.

If additional grow on work space is not provided then the ‘incubation to floatation’ model could be compromised as companies cannot move up to larger grow on units, thereby preventing cheaper ‘entry level’ work space from becoming available.

The proposals respond to a current gap in workspace provision in London as recently identified and discussed by Fiona Fletcher Smith Exec Director of Development, Enterprise & Environment for GLA.

Quotes from the various range of businesses employees who work within the Tileyard Studios cluster

Before the arrival of the railways the area around the The development of Barnsbury, to the west of the then By the beginning of the First World War, the whole of The abattoir building is built in 1870s to serve as a Site comprised villages and fields, with the exception fashionable Islington, was begun in the nineteenth the wider area was built out with houses. The prisons over night Cattle Lair to the nearby market. of some Georgian ribbon development, such as at century and largely completed by 1835. at Pentonville and Holloway, as well as the Caledonian Caledonian Road. cattle market, all of which had been deliberately By the beginning of the First World War, the whole of King’s Cross Station was built in 1851-1852. It replaced built outside the city, became partly surrounded by the wider area was built out with houses. The prisons The area adjacent to Maiden Lane (now York Way) a temporary station next to Maiden Lane (now York housing. at Pentonville and Holloway, as well as the Caledonian was employed in the tile and pottery production since Way) that had been quickly constructed with the line’s cattle market were fully surrounded by housing. the XIV century. As a matter of fact Tileyard Road arrival in London in 1850. King’s Cross construction catalysed the development gets his name from the numerous tile kilns South to of the area, which around the second half of the Copenhagen Fields. In 1855 a cattle market opened in Copenhagen Fields. century appears to be fully urbanised. In the 1870s Vale Royal had a number of tall chimneys and towers associated with the factory buildings. It has remained a commercial and industrial area.

Belle Isle was built to accommodate the needs of the livestock industry born with the new Cattle Market.

Architecture Masterplanning Design 26 2 The Site and its Context 2.10 The Historical Development of the Area

1916 1950 1990 2015

York Way is the old boundary between Islington and In the 1970s the railway sidings used as Rail Goods The Argent Masterplan for King’s Cross, which covers St Pancras. The Pevsner volume notes that it ‘winds Depot gets demolished and converted into a an area of 67 acres, lies to the south and south-west its way between derelict railway land and warehouses residential development of public housing: the Maiden of the site. When completed, the area will provide a awaiting transformation through the arrival of the Lane Estate. wide range of significant office and cultural uses, Channel Tunnel Rail link’. Pevsner goes on to note that shops and restaurants and bring new services and Vale Royal was ‘once the centre of slaughterhouses Numerous buildings in the Tileyard estate get amenities to the area, as well as a new network of and obnoxious trades’. converted into warehouses and light industrial units. public spaces that connect with the Regent’s Canal.

The name Belle Isle and Pleasant Grove (now Vale The abattoir building (22-23 Tileyard Road) is in use Tileyard Studios set itself up within the Tileyard Estate Royal) is believed to be a pun. In 1874 the Journalist as a printer works company between 1982 – 2009 (27 and develops a cluster of entertainment and music James Greenwood describes the area as “a place years). industry of up to 1050 employees amongst different so terrible as Belle-Isle was made out to be, due to companies. The abattoir building has now been vacant the odours of the slaughter, the poor hygiene and for a significant period since 2009 (9 years) and is in a the violence of Belle Isle or the pestilent colony of poor condition. cottagers that lived on Brandon Road.

Design and Access Statement, May 2018 | v2.0 Architecture Masterplanning Design Tileyard Studios building | 228 york way, kings cross Big Yellow self storage | 196 - 226 york way, kings cross 27