In the City of London’s heyday of the 1980s, most respectable investment bankers paid little heed to King’s Cross, then a seedy, drug-ridden necropolis just a few miles from its stock exchange halls and wine bars. Today, the area attracts tech giants, start-ups and global investors even as the centuries-old heart of London’s financial world stands still.
At the heart of the renaissance is Alphabet Inc., which built Google’s £1 billion ($1.24 billion) UK headquarters and settled the area for artificial intelligence company DeepMind. The UK base of Meta Platforms Inc. is nearby. Early investors LocalGlobe and Balderton Capital are based locally; They have funded fintech firms from Wise Plc to Revolut Ltd.
