Human Forest bikes in the privately-owned King’s Cross land [Simon Lamrock]

PERHAPS it is just me, but walking through the redeveloped King’s Cross I felt rather like a tourist marvelling at the pre-ruined ruins of an airbrushed civilisation.

Whether it is the facial recognition cameras, private security teams patrolling the host of corporation offices – or simply its own fancy “N1C” postcode – you get this sense of a limb disembodied from the rest of Camden’s body.

There are no rough-sleepers, drunks, punks or litter to be found in this 67 acres of land that was sold off to the King’s Cross Central Limited Partnership – an investment group made up of the AustralianSuper pension fund, Federated Hermes investment company and developer Argent.

It is managed by the King’s Cross Estate Services, based just next to the council’s offices in 3 St Pancras Square.

One fun fact to come out of last week’s controversial dockless e-bikes row was that Lime’s rival, Human Forest Ltd, had last year struck a separate deal with the private managers of the King’s Cross.

In another example of the King’s Cross’s otherworldliness, the report to the scrutiny committee said: “Lime is the only operator, currently, with an agreement with the council to operate services in Camden, although Human Forest has an agreement with the King’s Cross Estate for their bikes to be parked on private land under their ownership.”

Which begs the question – what other little deals have been agreed down there without the say-so of the borough?