Granddaughter of Hong Kong’s ‘King of Cotton Yarn’ opens start-up incubator and ethical retail space The Mills Fabrica in London, three years after debuting the concept in Tsuen Wan

Vanessa Cheung, heir to the Nan Fung Group’s founder, was inspired to turn a former textile warehouse in Tsuen Wan into a co-working, retail and arts complex

The Mills Fabrica London in city’s Knowledge Quarter is its first foreign outpost. Ethical retailers have opened; its 3D printer and lab are ready for tenants

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The Mills Fabrica London is a co-working and retail arts complex - just like the one in Hong Kong. Photo: Mariell Lind Hansen for The Mills Fabrica

Published: 12:45pm, 17 Sep 2021

As I walk up York Way beside King’s Cross railway station, towards one of Hong Kong’s most recent London business openings – and a promising new champion for sustainable innovation – I think of two things.

The first is how when I was young, this area was dangerous, with cars crawling the kerbs after dark and the blackened walls of the derelict industrial buildings hiding many indiscretions. And how it now seems bright and safe, with space and glass (and recently cleaned up bricks).

The second is that, looking at the walls of the railway station on my left, I wonder whether this is the side for Platform 9¾ – where the fictional Harry Potter and friends go through a wall every September to board the train to their wizarding school of Hogwarts.

When, a few minutes later, I enter the newly opened retail space/start-up incubator at the base of The Mills Fabrica London – all lovely steel-framed Crittall windows and light – I notice a sign saying “9¾”.

The co-working space at The Mills Fabrica London. Photo: Mariell Lind Hansen for The Mills Fabrica

Beneath it, a half shopping trolley appears to be crashing magically into the wall, heading in the direction of King’s Cross (and, presumably, Hogwarts).

The trolley is full of packaging along the lines of “Plastic Peas (is the product wasteful?)” or “Low Wage Watermelon (are the workers treated well?)”. And beside it is a banner advertising Provenance, one of the start-ups that’s just moved into the offices upstairs, and a company established to help us be better informed about the things we buy.