Lonson Neighbourhoods
Kings Cross
Named after a vast monument dedicated to King George IV in 1835, which used to stand where the railway station is today, King's Cross was developed on the site of a village previously known as Battle Bridge. This village was located by an ancient crossing of the River Fleet and was rumoured to be the setting for a major battle between the Romans and Queen Boudicca's Iceni tribe. King's Cross was one of London's poorest districts in the 19th century and was the playground of Dickens' Oliver Twist.
Post World War II, the area declined further, with many industrial buildings left to go derelict. A big redevelopment push, however, has transformed the make-up of King's Cross, which is now home to all manner of cultural institutions, including The British Library, King's Place, The Wellcome Collection, The Foundling Museum, London Canal Museum, Gagosian Art Gallery, the offices of The Guardian and The Observer newspapers, and The Place, London's specialist venue for contemporary dance. The seemingly out-of-place Camley Street Natural Park is a two-acre wildlife reserve a stone's throw from the area's redevelopment on the banks of the Regent's Canal, while the Greek-style St Pancras Parish Church is London's most expensive church after St Paul's Cathedral.
King's Cross is dominated by the imposing Grade I listed St Pancras railway station, arguably one of the finest stations in the world and now, with the Eurostar service, a gateway to Europe. The famous Platform Nine and Three-Quarters from the Harry Potter films is located in the main train terminal, providing quick access to Hogwarts (provided you can walk through the brick wall).
Now and Then
Online Walks
Kings Cross Station
King's Cross is a major rail hub, with national trains at King's Cross station and the Eurostar terminal at St. Pancras. King's Cross railway station, also known as London King's Cross, is one of the busiest railway stations in the United Kingdom, the southern terminus of the East Coast Main Line to North East England and Scotland. It quickly grew to cater for suburban lines and was expanded several times in the 19th century. It came under ownership of the London and North Eastern Railway as part of the Big Four grouping in 1923, who introduced famous services such as the Flying Scotsman and locomotives such as Mallard.
The station complex was redeveloped in the 1970s, simplifying the layout and providing electric suburban services, and it became a major terminus for the high-speed InterCity 125. The revitalised Regent's Canal area has offices, landscaped walkways and smart restaurants at Granary Square, plus the Kings Place arts centre. The British Library houses historic manuscripts. By day, cafes serve commuters, and at night DJs play at clubs like Scala and the Big Chill House.
Granary Square and Coal Drops Yard
The Goods Yard complex, part of the King's Cross Central development, was a rail freight terminal. The Yard was designed by Lewis Cubitt in 1852. The Coal Drops Yard, now redeveloped as a shopping complex, was used for distribution of coal. The two Victorian coal drops sheds were used to receive coal from South Yorkshire and trans-ship it to narrowboats on the Regents Canal and to horse-drawn carts; they processed 8 million tonnes a year. Coal was the only form of energy available to heat and light the buildings of London, either directly or after having been converted to coal gas in the adjacent gas works.
Nearby Granary Square is named after the Granary building. Trains carried Lincolnshire wheat to King's Cross, where the wheat would then be stored in the Granary building to be used by London's bakers. Granary Square incorporates a fountain consisting of 1,080 individual jets rising from the flush paved surface of the plaza. Visitors to the square can interact with the fountains to play a mobile version of the Snake game. Visitor attractions in the square include Queer Britain, the UK's first dedicated museum of LGBT history and culture.
As any fan of J.K. Rowling’s bestselling series will know, King’s Cross is where students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry catch the Hogwarts Express. In the wizarding world, Harry and his friends get to the platform by dashing through a brick wall between platforms 9 and 10. Meanwhile, in the real King’s Cross, platforms 9 and 10 are separated by tracks, but you can find a platform 9¾ on the wall in the station concourse. Look out for a luggage trolley embedded in the wall, and make-believe that you are off to start your magical school journey. The trolley is accessible at all hours, and you don’t have to pay to take your own photographs. You can have a professional photograph taken with a scarf in your house colours, which is then available for you to view and purchase inside the Harry Potter shop next door.
St. Pancras International
Adjacent to King's Cross station is St. Pancras International, the London terminus for Eurostar services to continental Europe. Beneath both main line stations is King's Cross St. Pancras tube station on the London Underground; combined they form one of the country's largest transport hubs. St Pancras's train lines are elevated 5 metres above street level because the 19th century Metropolitan Acts prohibited the intrusion of railways inside the old ring road to the south. And, as the Regent's Canal lies to the north of the station, trains coming in on a bridge across it would not have enough space to descend to ground level before reaching the train shed. As a result, a viaduct had to be built over the canal to accommodate the train line. King's Cross station, built 10 years earlier, got round the problem with a tunnel into the train shed, but St Pancras architect William Henry Barlow decided not to mimic this neat solution.
800 columns support the platforms above the undercroft, but a very odd unit of measurement was employed in their original design. The spacing between columns was calculated to match the plans of beer warehouses in Staffordshire, meaning St Pancras's undercroft was worked out using the length of beer barrels. In the station's freight heyday, three dedicated beer trains (and even more in the brewing season) arrived from Burton on Trent daily, their boozy wares lowered into the undercroft, before being farmed out to thirsty Londoners.
Amidst the stones and pathways around St Pancras Old Church (Pancras Road), you'll find the famous Thomas Hardy Tree, named as such to commemorate one of Britain's most regarded writers. Working here in the 1860s, when the Midland Railway was being built, Hardy worked to exhume graves and clear headstones from the path. Carefully, he lay each of these around the tree in circles, creating an intricate and unique installation that remains to this day.
Also upon the site is the St Pancras Old Church, possibly one of the oldest sites of Christian worship in England - dating back to the early 4th century. These days, it is a place of interest, as well as a destination for history lectures and candlelit concerts.
Click to view Spice Girls "Wannabee" music video
St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel London
This hotel is where the Spice Girls' music video for their first smash hit 'Wannabe' was filmed. A truly a truly iconic London landmark, it one of the finest examples of Victorian architecture in London. In 1862, the Midland Railway company, who ran a network of railways in the midlands, commissioned their own railway line into London. Construction finished on the new railway line and station in 1865. A competition was subsequently launched to design a hotel to double up as a grand frontage onto Euston Road.
Euston Station
A 15 minute walk from Kings Cross Station, Euston railway station (also known as London Euston) is a central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden, managed by Network Rail. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line to Liverpool Lime Street, Manchester Piccadilly, Edinburgh Waverley and Glasgow Central. It is also the mainline station for Birmingham New Street, Crewe, Chester, Shrewsbury and Holyhead connecting with ferries to Dublin.
British navigator Matthew Flinders, who played a major role in mapping the coast of Australia, died in 1814 and was buried in St James Church graveyard off Hampstead Road, Camden. During the mid-1800's London's railways were expanding dramatically, Euston and St Pancras stations required more ground. After 1854 several cemeteries were closed, including St James, and the remains of those resting therein were removed and re-interred elsewhere in a communal grave. This is likely to be unmarked or at best would have a small monument stating the plot contained various remains.
The burial ground where Matthew Flinders was first placed is now part of Euston Station. Where his remains got to after the 1814 burial is not known. It is a matter of record, however, that his widow visited the burial ground not long before her own death (in February 1852) and found the entrance had been changed and his remains removed from where he had been buried. It could very well be that his remains were dumped at the back of the burial ground on land now part of Euston Station, perhaps under platforms 12 - 15, or they are still in the burial ground at St. James Gardens. There are still a small number of large tombstones in the gardens. Sadly they are largely overgrown and in such a poor state that any engraved details are largely illegible. Today there is a memorial to Matthew Flinders and his travelling companion, Trim the cat, at Euston Station close to where it is believed the great navigator and explorer was buried.
London Canal Museum
A regional museum devoted to the history of London's canals, London Canal Museum is housed in a Victorian ice warehouse. The building was constructed between 1862 and 1863 to house ice imported from Norway by ship and canal barge. There are two preserved ice wells under the building, one of which may be viewed from the public area of the museum. The museum covers all aspects of the UK's waterways. London Canal Museum is situated in the King's Cross area of London, on the Regent's Canal.
Design by W3layouts