LPOL and Cubitts announced for Coal Drops Yard development in King's Cross

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Aug 30, 2017

More interesting news about the transformation of King’s Cross into a major fashion shopping destination. As it continues its status as one of London’s most interesting developing retail hubs, two locally-founded fashion brands, Cubitts and Lost Property of London, are set to open new stores at Coal Drops Yard.

This major new shopping quarter in King’s Cross is located next to Granary Square and its development reflects the migration of local and international names to King’s Cross.

The area has seen intensive development in recent years and has been transformed from a rundown part of the city best known just for its two giant railway stations (King’s Cross and St Pancras) to a shopping destination with a quirky mix of brands and leisure facilities.

The two brands just named are among the first to be announced within the Heatherwick Studio-designed Coal Drops Yard development, which will eventually house 100,000 sq ft of shops and restaurants when it opens to the public in autumn next year.

Bag specialist LPOL, founded by Central Saint Martins alumni and visiting lecturers Katy Bell and John Maskell, is set to expand from its existing boutique in Islington to open a new 874 sq ft flagship retail space underneath the site’s signature soaring roof.

With lost property offices having previously been key features of UK railway stations, the brand has a name that makes it a strong pick for a railway station-dominated neighbourhood.

The label takes traditional English saddlery and reimagines it through a modern minimalist lens (both in terms of the style and the determination to create minimal waste), creating products that are pared-back, sculptural and made by hand in the local area.

The LPOL flagship at Coal Drops Yard is being seen as a creative HQ for the brand as well as a retail space and is the first major expansion for the label.

Meanwhile affordable luxury eyewear brand Cubitts, founded by Tom Broughton in King’s Cross in 2012, will open a 502 sq ft store at the site of much inspiration for its product range. The eyewear frames are constructed with custom Cubitts pins directly inspired by butterfly rivets that can be found outside Lewis Cubitt’s Granary building in neighbouring Granary Square.

In 1851 the rivets were set in granite blocks to provide strength to support a crane which lifted goods from barges on the Regent’s canal. At Cubitts this same rivet shape is used on eyewear to provide strength which ties the pin-drilled hinges in place. The shape is also echoed in the brand’s logo that pays homage to King’s Cross while individual eyewear frames are  each named streets in the area.

The Cubitts store at Coal Drops Yard will offer both a new retail space, and allow for an expansion of the company’s HQ on nearby Caledonian Road.

LPOL and Cubitts fit the Coal Drops Yard concept well with the new shopping area set to focus on a mix of fashion, craft and culture, to blend modernism with heritage and to mix emerging brands in with established names.

European clothing company Carhartt Work In Progress said it would open at King’s Cross this autumn while Jigsaw and Nike are also moving in.