ArchitectureLondon · Completed
Alison Brooks Architects' arched Cadence Court apartments at King's Cross, London
A five-sided block of 163 flats with two towers, two-storey arches and a reflecting-pool courtyard at King's Cross's northern end.
Most people meet King's Cross from the south, off the station concourse. Cadence Court, a red-brick apartment block by London studio Alison Brooks Architects, is meant to do the welcoming from the other end. Brooks told Dezeen the aim was a clear statement of arrival from the north of the masterplan, and her first instinct was a run of two-storey arches, a "civic welcoming gesture" that also gives the building what she calls an animated silhouette.
It sits at the northern end of Lewis Cubitt Park, looking south towards Heatherwick Studio's Coal Drops Yard. The brick nods to nearby St Pancras Station and the arches to the area's gothic architecture. The plan is a pentagon with no front or back, rising into two towers of 12 and 16 storeys, and 85 per cent of its parts were made off-site.
The part you'd notice is the open-air courtyard at its heart: a reflecting pool ringed by sheltered walkways that link 163 flats with the shops and social spaces on the first two floors, including a ground-floor "community living room". Above, rectangular and arched windows light white-walled flats with balconies and shared roof terraces.
The homes are private, but the arches and park edge are easy to take in on a walk north from Coal Drops Yard.
Our summary of a story from Dezeen, published 2 November 2026. Read the original
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From Dezeen