Researching King’s Cross in London
By: J. David Chapman/May 17, 2018
It is a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon as I am sitting in the lobby (actually the living room) of a 200-year old hotel in the Bloomsbury neighborhood of Camden Borough in London.
I am leading nine student researchers from the University of Central Oklahoma studying two significant developments in London. This week I will discuss King’s Cross, where we are researching crime displacement.
We are doing this important research with the help of Dr. David McIlhatton, Dan Range and Tom Fisher, experienced researchers from Coventry University.
Our first goal was to collect and analyze data in an area of London that was once a desolate environmental wasteland, full of derelict buildings, home to public housing, prostitution, drugs and other criminal activities.
This area is now home to global companies such as Google, trendy pubs, coffee shops and a bustling retail center in a former coal storage facility. It was established in 1850 and housed the city’s distribution of coal for heating of residential housing throughout the city.
These student researchers of the built environment are carrying on a decade-old tradition of business and history students from UCO collaborating together to learn the craft of research and solve problems. They are interviewing residents, shopkeepers, commuters, visitors and other stakeholders to gain their perceptions of the work done at King’s Cross and evaluate the impact of the redevelopment in London.
One might assume that the impact of developments will reduce crime, provide new life to derelict buildings and create a vibrant venue for entertainment, which could be nothing but positive. However, there are also theories that claim these redevelopment projects are nothing but gentrification and crowding out of longtime residents. Some speculate that these redevelopment projects simply push the criminal activities underground to other areas and do not actually reduce crime.
The government agencies of Camden Borough, several British universities and UCO want to know how the citizens of London, and specifically how the stakeholders in the area, feel about the redevelopment. We interviewed them by asking a series of questions and discovered their perspectives. Once finished, we compiled and analyzed the data, with several students presenting their research. We have the goal of publishing a paper in an academic peer-reviewed journal soon.
J. David Chapman is an associate professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).