Kings Cross, London

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This article is about the area of London. For other uses, see Kings Cross.

Kings Cross

Greater London
OS grid reference	TQ315835
London borough	Camden
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	WC1
Postcode district	N1
Dial code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
UK Parliament	Holborn and St. Pancras
London Assembly	Barnet and Camden
European Parliament	London
List of places: UK • England • London

Kings Cross is an area of London partly in the London Borough of Camden and partly in the London Borough of Islington. It is an inner-city district located 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of Charing Cross. The area has a reputation for being run-down; however, regeneration is going on under the auspices of King's Cross Central in time for the arrival of the Eurostar on 14th November 2007.

[edit] History

The area was previously a village known as Battle Bridge, which referred to a bridge also known as Broad Ford Bridge, which was an ancient crossing of the River Fleet. Some say the bridge was the site of a major battle between the Romans and the Iceni tribe led by Boudica who is buried, legend has it, under platform 9 at King's Cross station. Others point out that the name Broad Bridge predates Battle Bridge and believe that the later is a corruption of the former. The area had certainly been settled at Roman times when Caesar had a camp here, known as The Brill. The name is commemorated in two streets lying behind King's Cross and St Pancras stations. The Old St Pancras Church, also set behind the stations, is said to be one of the oldest Christian sites in Britain.

In 1835 a monument to King George IV was built at the junction of Gray's Inn Road, Pentonville Road, and New Road, which later became Euston Road. The monument was unpopular and was taken down 10 years later, though the area has kept the name of Kings Cross. King's Cross railway station now stands at the junction where the cross stood. The station, designed by architect Lewis Cubitt and opened in 1852, succeeded a short-lived earlier station, erected north of the canal in time for the Great Exhibition.

St Pancras station, owned by the Midland Railway, lies immediately to the west. They both had extensive land (the railway lands) to house their associated facilities for handling general goods and specialist commodities such as fish, coal, potatoes and grain. The passenger stations on Euston Road far outweighed in public attention the economically more important goods traffics to the north. King's Cross and St Pancras stations, and indeed all London railway stations, made an important contribution to the capital's economy.

After World War II the area declined from being a poor but busy industrial and distribution services district to a partially abandoned post-industrial district. By the 1980s it was notorious for prostitution and drug abuse. This reputation impeded attempts to revive the area, utilising the large amount of land available following the decline of the railway good yard to the north of the station and the many other vacant premises in the area.

Relatively cheap rents and a central London location made the area attractive to artists and designers and both Anthony Gormley and Thomas Heatherwick established studios in the area. In the 1990s the government established the King's Cross Partnership [1] to fund regeneration projects, and the commencement of work on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link in 2000 provided a major impetus for other projects. Within a few years much of the socially undesirable behaviour had been moved on, and new projects such as offices and hotels had begun to open. The area has also been for many years home to a number of trades union head offices (including the NUJ, RMT, UNISON, NUT, Community and UCU). North of St Pancras Station is St Pancras Old Church.

The area has increasingly become home to cultural establishments. The British Library moved next to St Pancras station, and was built in an architecturally sympathetic style. The London Canal Museum opened in 1992. There was a small theatre, the Courtyard. However this had to close in late 2006 as a result of the gentrification of the area caused by a number of regeneration projects here, in this case, Regent's Quarter [2]. The Gagosian Gallery moved their main London premises to the area in 2004. There are plans for the London Sinfonietta and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment to move into King's Place, a development under construction (2006) next to the Regent's Canal, which will also become the new home of The Guardian newspaper.

The area is expected to remain a major focus of redevelopment through the first two decades of the 21st century. Eurostar trains are due to terminate at St Pancras station from November 2007 and the construction project has led to the demolishing of several buildings, including the Gasworks. (Built in the 1860s and rebuilt in the 1880s was still in use until 1999). Several gasholders that had dominated the area behind station for over a century have been taken down during the building works and placed in storage. Once the new line is up and running a development project on the land between the two major stations and the old Kings Cross goods yard is expected to commmence. This will be called King's Cross Central, and is planned as one of the largest construction projects in Greater London in the first quarter of the 21st century.

Model showing the current redevelopment of the Kings Cross area with the new Channel Tunnel Rail Link terminal behind the barrel vaulted St Pancras station on the left.

[edit] In popular culture

For readers of Harry Potter, platform 9 3/4 is where the schoolboy hero boards the train for Hogwarts. The railway station has capitalised on tourist interest by putting up a sign for this platform, and burying a luggage trolley, apparently, half into the wall.

King's Cross and its surrounding streets was also the setting for the 1955 Ealing comedy, The Ladykillers and Mike Leigh's High Hopes 1988. Anthony Minghella's 2006 film Breaking and Entering is also set in King's Cross.

The British pop music duo The Pet Shop Boys have a song featured on their 1987 album Actually named "King's Cross": the melancholy track discusses the hopelessness of the AIDS epidemic during that time and uses the King's Cross area as the "backdrop" of the story, trading on the area's associations with drug use and prostitution.

Nearby railway stations: