As neighborhoods change over time, color is a bridge between tradition and invention When you think about your city, what colors come to mind" When I think about London my head fills with an image of the gray water of the Thames, under a gray sky in the rain, surrounded by the raw gray concrete of Brutalist architecture. There?s the white of St. Paul?s Cathedral in the distance, and the black edge of the endless, demanding city. This monochrome is either dull or sharp depending on the day, but it?s not the whole story.

Because there?s a third color to London, and it?s the one that gives the city its heart: gold. Go up to King?s Cross, the neighborhood at the northern edge of central London, and it?s right there, alongside the black and white: two Victorian marvels of architecture in golden colors. Looming large on one side is the redbrick beauty of gothic engineering that is St. Pancras station, and on the other side is the plainer King?s Cross station. For me the simpler building is the more elegant of the two, for the main attraction of King?s Cross rail terminus isn?t the wide, sweeping arches. It?s the classic London stock brick: the yellowbrick. There are plenty of grandiose buildings around the city, but plain yellowbrick is the bread and butter of this city. Gold is the perfect color for a place so often covered in fog and rain, providing an uplifting sunny yellow that looks almost better when it?s wet. But this was never a conscious decision: The gold ...