Heatherwick Studio is pleased to announce that Coal Drops Yard, a major new shopping district and public space in King’s Cross, is set to open to the public on Friday 26 October 2018.

The design extends the inner gabled roofs of the warehouses to link the two viaducts and define the yard, as well as creating fluid patterns of circulation. The flowing roofs, supported by an entirely new freestanding structure interlaced within the heritage fabric, rise up and stretch towards each other until they touch. This forms an entirely new floating upper storey, a large covered outdoor space and a central focus for the entire site. The studio’s design celebrates the specific texture and history of the Victorian industrial buildings while creating 100,000 sqft of new public space, including retail and dining destinations.

Thomas Heatherwick, Founder of Heatherwick Studio, said:

My studio has been based in King’s Cross for over 17 years, so it’s been an enormous privilege to reinvent such a locally significant site. These extraordinary buildings were first built in 1850 and have lived an unusually rich past, first serving as infrastructure, then warehousing and offices. To most people, they are famous for having hosted nightclubs for over a decade. We believed there was an opportunity to celebrate the heritage of the existing structures rather than destroy them.

As the opening approaches, we’re all looking forward to seeing how Coal Drops Yard can not only serve as an unusual place for shopping and eating but also become a destination in its own right; a special new space that the public can make their own.

Tamsin Green, Project Leader at Heatherwick Studio, said:

It has been a great challenge to transform these historic Victorian structures from their former industrial use into a place that is fully publicly accessible for the first time. The integration of the new curved precision engineered elements into the historic context has posed many challenges to the team, necessitating a rigorous and flexible approach to design development and coordination.

We owe a great deal to our collaborators with whom we’ve worked so closely over the last four years. We look forward to celebrating with them as well as the public once Coal Drops Yard opens in October.

Read the full press release here.