About the Venue: ‘The concept for Kings Place was to create an architecturally inspiring mixed-use
development which, without recourse to public capital funding, would deliver a major new
arts centre next to King’s Cross/St Pancras and offer something to the local community.’
Peter Millican, Director, Parabola Land Limited, December 2007

Designed by architects Dixon Jones for the developers Parabola Land Limited, the Kings
Place development at King’s Cross is a new architectural landmark offering an exciting mix
of new facilities. It sits adjacent to the biggest area of regeneration in central London.

Kings Place is partly a public and cultural building and partly an office building. It consists of a public ground-floor area on the waterfront, two lower levels devoted to the arts, and seven
floors of offices above. This rich combination works in many different ways for London arts
audiences, the local community and office workers.

Firstly, it is an outstanding music and visual arts venue, with a range of imaginative and
beautifully designed facilities that will be ideal for performance, exhibition and education.
The music, arts and restaurant areas are arranged around generous public spaces which
form a central hub to the building. Everyone will be able to come into the building and enjoy
it. The arts facilities will include free access to a range of art galleries and unusually
affordable tickets to concerts and other events.

Five Day Festival opens new cultural development in King's Cross this Autumn - Venue Review Kings Place, designed by leading architects Dixon Jones, will open on 1 October 2008 with a special five-day festival... Read more »

The music programme at Kings Place is arranged in a series of weekly events, each with a
common theme and curated by a very diverse range of musicians and musicologists. The
weekly events – consisting of four consecutive evenings – together with the flexible nature
of the auditorium, allow the exploration of an amazingly wide range of music in depth,
taking in talks, film, and visual arts. Each event will be priced extremely reasonably, giving
access to everyone and allowing people to explore themes in depth.
In addition to the weekly ‘mini-festivals’, each week there will be three regular spots that run
as a thread throughout the year. Words on Monday is a series of talks and discussions;
Tuesday night will be devoted to more contemporary music and jazz put together in a
different way; and Sunday evenings will be the preserve of the London Chamber Music
Society under the artistic direction of Peter Fribbins.

Kings Place will also be the headquarters for two of the world’s leading orchestras – the
London Sinfonietta and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment – who will perform, use
the rehearsal facilities and develop education programmes for the community. At the same
time, a number of very small music organisations are to be offered inexpensive office space
in the building, adding to the buzz of musical activity and conversation.

Kings Place Music Foundation
In order to deliver a rich and busy music programme without recourse to public subsidy, the
music programme is run by a charitable trust, an organisation that, crucially, will pay only
peppercorn rent to the building over 25 years. The Kings Place Music Foundation is
expected to break even, with income derived from ticket sales and from the hire of its
spaces for conferences and rehearsals.

Orchestras
Both the London Sinfonietta and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment are making their
headquarters at Kings Place. They bring to Kings Place a wonderful balance of the
contemporary and the classical, and add real gravitas to the building’s musical atmosphere
and provision. Within the building each orchestra will have offices, excellent rehearsal
rooms and space for their active outreach and education programmes, which will be of
invaluable benefit to local schools and the surrounding community. Both are also resident
orchestras at Southbank Centre.

Paintings and sculpture will be on view around Kings Place, both within dedicated galleries
and in the public spaces inside and outside the building, including on the waterfront.

There are two key visual arts galleries within the building: one will be run by the renowned
foundry and sculpture gallery Pangolin, based in Gloucestershire. Pangolin will establish a
London base at Kings Place, in the form of Pangolin London. The second, Kings Place
Gallery, will be a large public gallery run by Kings Place itself.

Kings Place will be a lively and serious new public visual arts space in a part of London
which, particularly with the advent of Central St Martin’s and with the recent arrival of
galleries such as Gagosian, is set to become a significant visual arts quarter.