We would like to thank our interviewees for their time, insights and contributions.
Job titles were correct for 2000–06 unless otherwise stated.
Roger Madelin CBE – chief executive officer
David Partridge – deputy chief executive officer
Robert Evans – director of planning
André Gibbs – senior project officer
Peter Freeman – non-executive director
Anne Hughes – King’s Cross Recruit, centre director (current)
Anna Strongman – senior projects director (current)
Bob West – head of King’s Cross team
Richard Kirby – principal planning case officer, King’s Cross team
David Reidy – London Borough of Camden sites team manager (current)
Frances Wheat – principal planner, development control (current)
Asha Paul – head of committee services
Cllr (Dame) Jane Roberts – leader of Camden council (to 2005)
Cllr Heather Johnson – chair of development control subcommittee (2005–06)
Cllr John Thane – executive member for environment
Cllr Theo Blackwell – executive member for regeneration
Cllr Jake Sumner – member, development control subcommittee
Cllr Sue Vincent – vice chair, development control subcommittee
Cllr Mike Greene – executive member for environment (2006–10)
Cllr Raj Chada – leader of Camden council (2005–06)
Janet Sutherland – principal housing officer
Alison Lowton – borough solicitor
Stephen Jordan – managing director
David Joy –chief executive (current)
Roger Mann – director of property Hyperion/Exel
Dr Demetri Porphyrios – architect and masterplanner, Porphyrios Associates
Bob Allies OBE – architect and masterplanner, Allies and Morrison
Graham Morrison OBE – architect and masterplanner, Allies and Morrison
Robert Gordon Clark – executive chairman, London Communications Agency
John McAslan CBE –partner, John McAslan + Partners
Robert Townshend –principal, Townshend Landscape Architects
Paddy Pugh – principal officer, English Heritage
Michael Edwards – King’s Cross Railway Lands Group
Colin Wilson – senior planner, Greater London Authority
David Lunts – executive director, Homes and Community Agency
Michael Hurn CBE – senior civil servant, Department for Communities and Local Government
Steve Hitchins – leader, Islington council
Sir Stuart Lipton – chief executive officer, Rosehaugh Stanhope Developments
Camilla Ween – senior transport planner, Transport for London
Peter Rees – professor of Places & City Planning in the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment
Pat Hayes – director of environment and planning, London Borough of Ealing
Rosemarie Macqueen MBE – strategic director of built environment, City of Westminster (2007–14)
Sir Stuart Lipton – developer, Lipton Rogers Developments (previously Rosehaugh Stanhope and Chelsfield)
Alan Leibowitz – joint managing director, Dorrington Properties
Adrian Penfold OBE – head of planning, British Land
Cllr Daniel Moylan – Conservative councillor at Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Lorraine Hart – director, Community Land Use
Sir Robin Wales – leader (1995–2002) and Mayor of London Borough of Newham since 2002
Dominic Ellison – chief executive officer, Hackney Co-operative Developments CIC
Particular thanks are due to Argent’s Roger Madelin for the huge amount of time he spent helping to piece the story together, and for his generosity and openness. Also to Robert Evans for his total recall of events. We are grateful to Argent for accepting the objectivity of this book and for the immense trust and openness it has shown over its contents.
We would also like to thank Demetri Porphyrios, Bob Allies and Graham Morrison for their insights. Bob Allies and Graham Morrison also provided generous support in helping us assemble and redraw images for the book. Thanks, too, to John Sturrock for his generosity in allowing us to use his photographs, and Alex Ford (Allies and Morrison) and Isaac Amin (Argent) for their considerable help with the images.
Our reviewers, through RIBA Publishing, Duncan Bowie (University of Westminster), Colin Haylock (Haylock Planning and Design) and Peter James Heath (Atkins Masterplanning) provided invaluable insights on an early draft of this book.
Peter Bishop and Lesley Williams