Gallagher helps secure new King's Cross development

Courtesy Gallagher

The King’s Cross estate was an underused 67-acre industrial wasteland owned by the King’s Cross Central Limited Partnership that is being transformed into a new part of the city with homes, shops, offices, galleries, bars, restaurants, schools and a university.

The King’s Cross development is a mixture of old and new buildings and many of the old buildings are listed with strict planning restrictions.

The public areas and many of the buildings are managed and maintained by a specialist team, King’s Cross Estate Services, which is committed to keeping King’s Cross clean, well-maintained, well-lit and secure at all hours of the day and night.

To help achieve the team’s ambition of making King’s Cross the best managed estate in the UK, the team needed a security solution that could evolve alongside them as the estate grows.

“Some of the buildings here have played a significant part in the area’s history, so extra care needs to be taken when installing a security system,” said Nick Killington, King’s Cross Estates security system design specialist.

Killington said Gallagher was the specified solution throughout the project: “As we are such a large estate, we required an enterprise solution that offers us the ability to extend as and when required, something we know is a particular strength of the Gallagher system.

“The Gallagher solution is particularly useful in a retro-fit situation like this, where running cables and network points in such buildings isn’t allowed.  For example, we eventually want to replace some of the door handles with a wireless locking system, which we know can also be linked to the Gallagher system.”

The Gallagher solution provides flexibility to integrate a number of other systems, such as video, visitor management and elevators, as well as being able to add functionality like mobile access when they require it.

For King’s Cross, they have so far integrated 178 T-series readers, a Milestone video management system and Otis Compass lift system through the Gallagher Command Centre.

Gallagher technology will continue to feature across the new phases of the King’s Cross development, providing integrated, scalable security solutions to help create a welcoming, secure place for people to work, live and do business in this whole new part of London.

Killington said: “The Gallagher solution has allowed us to futureproof our security, ensuring it will evolve with our needs as and when required.”