Plans to redevelop blocks to the east of King’s Cross station

• YOUR report (‘Gateway to Islington’ plan, Tribune, June 4) refers to plans to redevelop more parts of the blocks to the east of King’s Cross station.

The property company behind the scheme describes the whole area as the Regent Quarter.

When parts of these blocks were upgraded some years ago, the renewed area was indeed called the Regent Quarter by the developers – without consultation with existing inhabitants or businesses.

But there’s no way that name (no doubt invented in an attempt to enhance their property values) applies to the area as a whole, beyond the buildings owned (and partially revamped) by them.

The southern-most of the blocks concerned, bounded by York Way, Caledonia Street, Caledonian Road, and Pentonville Road, does indeed have an overall name, known and used by (literally) generations of those of us living and or working in the area.

It’s the Bravingtons Block (named after the company whose headquarters were here for much of the last century).

The company behind these latest proposals (to further revamp parts of these blocks) not only seems ignorant of our history here but, as usual, displays little genuine interest in the views of the existing community: although our building is just yards from one of the areas which these latest plans relate to, we’ve had no approach from the would-be developers.

Despite the spurious map on the developers’ website, which might suggest they own all of this block, they don’t own this building, and there’s no way we are part of any so-called “Regent Quarter”.

ALBERT BEALE
Address supplied, N1