King's Cross Road and Pentonville Road safety improvement scheme

Consultation update 6 October 2023  

Between 14 March and 2 May 2023, we held a public consultation on proposals to make safety improvements to the King’s Cross area on Pentonville Road.  

We have now published our report on the outcomes of the consultation, which you can view in the ‘Documents’ section of this webpage.  

We received 287 responses to the consultation in total.  

Our responses to the issues raised during the consultation are included in Appendix A of the report. 

After fully considering the consultation responses, we have decided to proceed with the scheme with some changes made following feedback we received during the consultation.

The changes we plan to make are:

• Introduce more signage to help cyclists better understand how to use the new junction  
• Make some changes to the layout of the proposed tactile paving 
• Where possible, make some changes to increase the separation between pedestrians and cyclists. This has reduced the amount of footway to be shared-use between pedestrians and cyclists. We are unable to remove all shared-use footways and there is more information about this in the Response to Issues Raised in Appendix A  
• Keep all cycle hire docking stations on Northdown Street in their existing locations, which will hopefully enable further greenery to be installed on King's Cross Road (subject to further surveys), whilst reducing construction and ongoing operational costs. Cars and vans will still have enough space to turn at the southern end of Northdown Street

Some of the changes we would like to make to Northdown Street, including the parking bay changes and closure to motor traffic at the southern end, will be subject to Islington Council’s governance and decision-making processes.

- update ends -

Overview

There have been plans to make significant improvements to the area around King's Cross and the gyratory for several years.

We held a consultation about high level proposed changes to traffic movements in 2017 and we received more than 1,000 consultation responses. 70% of respondents supported the overall proposals. Respondents were asked to rank what they considered to be the most (and least) important for improving King's Cross. Improved pedestrian facilities were ranked as the most important consideration followed by improved cycling facilities.

Although we were not in a position financially to progress enhancements to the entire gyratory all at once, we have delivered phased safety improvements to help support people walking and cycling on Pentonville Road, Judd Street and Midland Road. However, this does not mean that our ambition to transform the area is reduced. It is vital that we continue action to help vulnerable road users walk and cycle safely.

The first section we are looking to improve as part of this new, phased approach is the junction of Pentonville Road, King's Cross Road and Northdown Street.

In summary we propose to:

• Simplify the existing pedestrian crossings, to make them easier for people to use, including a straight-across crossing over Pentonville Road so that people will no longer need to wait on a central island
• Close Northdown Street to motorised traffic at the junction with Pentonville Road, allowing cyclists to join a shared use crossing and continue their journey
• Provide more space for pedestrians
• Add new early start signals for cyclists, to help them safely move ahead of traffic, including a segregated facility for cyclists in the eastbound direction
• Add a new section of bus lane
• Have an opportunity for new planting and greenery to create a more pleasant environment, subject to ground conditions
• Add cycle Hire docking stations moved to a more convenient location from Northdown Street to King's Cross Road

Our proposals in full are as follows:

• The conversion of the confusing ‘triple stagger’ pedestrian crossing layout to two crossings, perpendicular to each other - a simpler and more convenient arrangement
• Conversion of the staggered crossing over Pentonville Road to a straight-across ‘toucan’ crossing, to help pedestrians cross more conveniently
• Cyclists will also be able to use this crossing, providing a safe passage over the Inner Ring Road from Northdown Street towards King's Cross Road. This enables two protected right turns for cyclists:
  • Pentonville Road eastbound into King's Cross Road
  • Pentonville Road westbound into Northdown Street
• To close Northdown Street’s entry from and exit to Pentonville Road to motorised traffic to provide space for the new crossing, and make it easier for pedestrians to cross the mouth of Northdown Street and safer for cyclists (who will still be able to enter and exit Northdown Street)
• Vehicles would be able to leave Northdown Street via Caledonian Road or Collier Street, with space provided to turn vehicles around at the southern end of Northdown Street
• Make the pavement wider, providing more space on the shared-use footway, which will also slow traffic speeds

Information to help you respond 

There is additional information in the ‘Documents’ section of this page. This information explains our proposals in more detail.

• An Easy Read document to explain our proposals
• An Easy Read version of our consultation survey
• A document to show a summary of the changes we are proposing
• A Map to show the location and where the changes are proposed
• Frequently asked questions about the scheme
• A copy of our consultation survey if you would prefer to complete a hard copy and post it to our Freepost address (which is FREEPOST TFL HAVE YOUR SAY)

We want this consultation to be accessible to everyone. There is an Easy Read version of our materials and an Easy Read version of our survey in the ‘Documents’ section. A British Sign Language video is also available to view which includes audio.

If you need to translate this page into another language, please use the ‘Select language’ button in the bottom-left hand corner of this page.

In person drop in event

We will be holding a drop in event at a local venue to give you an opportunity to see further information about the proposals and provide your thoughts and feedback, to allow us to consider your views.

The session will be held on Wednesday 19 April at the Jean Stokes Community Centre from 15:00 to 20:00.

The full address is:

The Jean Stokes Community Centre
Coatbridge House
Carnoustie Drive
London
N1 0DX

Virtual Community Conversation

As part of our consultation, we are hosting one-on-one ‘Community Conversations’ with local people who have questions about the scheme. The sessions are intended only for those people who need to discuss a question with us so that they can then submit a response to the consultation. If you simply want to tell us about your views of the King's Cross Pentonville Road scheme, the best way to do that is to reply to the consultation. You can do that by completing our survey, sending us an email or writing to us at our Freepost address.

If you have a more general question, our FAQs may already have the answer, please check there first. For further details, or to register to take part, please see our Eventbrite booking page.