Kings Cross and St Pancras

Earlier that day we were in St James's Park spotting birds and arrived to the station around 2pm.
Not too long ago, I had a chat with English colleagues of mine about the name of this station, that it's St Pancras or King's Cross. They did not know exactly, but we guessed that St Pancras is the international one, and King's Cross is the domestic one, and actually, it's two separate, abutting railway stations. Harry Potter's train left from the latter.

Platform 9 3/4

The front of St Pancras is a beautiful hotel (formerly Midland, now the Renaissance Hotel), designed by George Gilbert Scott. Scott was one of the most prolific designers: about 800 building designs or reconstructions are associated with his name (such as the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park).

The Renaissance Hotel

Inside the station stands 'The Meeting Place', Paul Day's monumental sculpture. Not just the public, but our family was also divided over this sculpture.
The message is clear enough in itself here on the platforms of Eurostar which connects England and France. The statue was modelled after the sculptor and his French wife, Catherine.

The Meeting Place

Leaving the station, first we started off eastward in Euston Road. There was a wide variety of people and heavy traffic which is typical in the vicinity of such a big railway stations.

First, the Lighthouse was we wanted to see which is a lighthouse built on top of  a house, but it was renovated, so we missed it. The origin of the lighthouse is uncertain, although the building has been from the 19th-century. Based on a theory it was a marketing trick of the oyster bar in the ground floor, in an age when oysters were cheap food and the lighthouse lamp light signalled the arrival of the fresh product, so that was also visible from afar.

A borrowed picture of The Lighthouse Building (Photograph by Mike Peel)

From there we started back on the south side of Euston Road, and then we went further down into smaller streets. In Argyle Square, almost every house is a small hotel. The process of the transition from houses to hotels started around 1860, though at that time these hotels were rather brothels. Prostitution was present until the 1990s, when the area was rehabilitated. The Pet Shop Boys's 'King's Cross' in 1987 still shows that darker era.

We go across the cosy Whidborne Street 

We followed the small alleyways of Whidborne Street and Argyle Walk then walked further in Tonbridge Street, and then from there we went in Bidborough Street. Our aim was Woburn Walk, a little bit further away. This street is a separate, small world with its small shops and shop windows. William Butler Yeats, the famous Irish poet lived here, in the number 18, between 1895 and 1919.

The shops of  Woburn Walk

Then we visited the peculiar, Greek-style St Pancras Church which was consecrated in 1822.

St Pancras Parish Church

The main entrance is from Upper Woburn Place. Both on Euston Road and temple garden side, robust caryatids are standing; they are robust to a fault. The reason of this is a mistake: the creator, John Charles Felix Rossi worked on them in the studio for three years, and when he delivered them into place, realized that they were too tall to their place! So he chopped them up on the spot, and shortened the statues. Fortunately, it's hard to spot it because the sculptures' chitons have allowed the operation.

Caryatids

The garden-facing caryatids are protecting the crypt, which hasn't been used for burials since the 1850s. During the Second World War it was used as air raid shelter, but now exhibitions are held there. When we were there, there was an Italian exhibition, "When Material Transforms into Art".

Exhibition in the Crypt - Anna liked this dress

After visiting the exhibition, we went over to the other side of Euston Road, we crossed a small park in front of Euston station and headed to Melton Street which later becomes Cardington Street.
In London there are some abandoned, closed subway station, here you can find such a sad building. Euston Underground station himself exists, but this is a ceased exit.

Dead station

At the end of Cardington Street we found the abandoned building of London Temperance Hospital which prepared us for the  bleakness of Hampstead Road. The hospital was founded in 1885 by a teetotaller association. The main goal was to avoid using alcohol for curing. From 1939 up till 1990 it worked as temperance hospital.

The abandoned hospital

The southern part of Hampstead Road is so ugly as it is. Noisy, dirty and hideous buildings are everywhere. So we were forced to endure a whole 10 minutes until we were going through it.

Grey, noisy, bleak

We went past a block of houses which we had spot once from the top of the London Eye. This is the Ampthill Estate, which was funny-looking from the distance with its different coloured roofs, but they were just so big, grey blocks in reality.

Ampthill Estate

Arriving to Mornington Crescent you can go further to visit the exciting, busy Camden but we turned right. As moving away from the Hampstead Road, all was becoming more relaxed. On the corner of Oakley Square and Crowndale Road was the Working Men's College, the world's first workers' school, founded by the Christian Socialists in 1854.

Working Men's College

Walking down on Crowndale Road we saw this former church building converted to theatre. The Theatro Technis has been operating since the '50s as fringe theatre company with strong ties to Cyprus.

Fringe theatre

On the other side of the old buildings of St Pancras Hospital and St Pancras Gardens is Goldington Crescent Gardens. Walking through it, we 'admired' the 'Clouds', these extremely ugly looking rather tumour-like statues. Well, we are not the only one who disliked it.

Cloud

St Pancras Gardens is a nice quiet (grave) park, just a few people were walking there other than us. First we visited St Pancras Old Church. This place is supposed to have been a Christian site of worship since the 4th Century.

St Pancras Old Church

The interior of the church

The graveyard is fused with the park, where a number of really interesting things caught our attention. A strange twisty tree with branches as if they were writhing people:

Novelist and poet Thomas Hardy in his young age was supervisor of railway construction here in 1865 (originally studied civil engineering). During the construction the temple garden was cut in half, and the graves were just emptied. Hardy was absolutely horrified when he saw the scattered remains of the dead, and was really shaken especially seeing a two-headed skeleton. He kicked up a stink, ordered the train company to mend its crime, and he hoarded  the tombstones around the root of this tree. As two of our London books have it.
In contrast, according to a little tablet placed there, though the tree was Hardy's idea indeed, he just revised the exhumation of the dead which passed off nicely. So maybe just another urban legend?

Hardy's Tree

The following image shows the mausoleum designed by Sir John Soane for himself and his family, and it contains every architectural feature which is characterise his oeuvre. There are two Grade I (unchangeable monument) sepulchres in London; this one and Marx's monument in Highgate Cemetery. Supposedly, this mausoleum served as model of the famous London red telephone box.

Soane's mausoleum

We went through,  under the rails coming from St Pancras, to reach the Camley Street Natural Park, which sounded fantastic in the midst of many rail and industrial areas, but unfortunately it is closed on Saturdays.

This was the umpteenth walk of ours in London when we ran into the Regent's Canal.

Regent's Canal

The canal flows from the Paddington, through the northern part of Regent's Park down till the docks, near the western part of Canary Wharf. It was extremely impressive, as this area which we visited  was restored and developed.

Located on the other side of the canal is the renovated Granary Square situated with fountains, chairs, benches, neighbouring a college of the University of Arts London - you can cross over a footbridge to get there.

Granary Square

Then,along the canal, we went till the Battlebridge Bassin, which was formerly a harbour. The bassin is extremely quiet and beautiful with apartments with a view to the water, restaurants and houseboats. On the other side of the harbour is the Canal Museum.

Battlebridge Bassin

We approached the harbour through the Kings Place, which is a large office building with concert and exhibition halls. Restaurant, café and The Guardian editorial offices has been here as well.

Kings Place

Long time ago, there was a settlement called Battlebridge in the area; this is the origin of the name. According to tradition here was a battle between the army of Boudica, the warrior queen and the Romans around 60- 61 AD.

And to link back to the beginning of the post: another tradition is that Boudica's tomb  is under the platforms 9 and 10 in Kings Cross somewhere, so the place where Harry Potter usually disappears off.
Close to the end of our trip, we reached Scala, the famous concert venue. In daylight it is more like an abandoned hotel, though it works.

The Scala

The building was originally made ​​for cinema in 1914, but World War I intervened, so at first the nearly completed building had been used for different purpose. As cinema, it finally opened up in 1920.

In the early '70s the movie expanded its profile and became scene of rock concerts as well. Here, for example, had the only concert of Iggy Pop and the Stooges in London. Then, in 1974, local residents didn't bear more noise, and with petitions they managed to make close the venue.
The Scala reopened in 1981 as movie again, and in 1993 went bankrupt.
In 1999 it was renovated, expanded, and has been working as a cinema, disco and concert hall since then. Its performers, among others, were Deftones, Coldplay and Avril Lavigne.

This walk took about three and a half hours.

From the Brompton Cemetery to Sloane Square

This is the second part of our walk which started with South Kensington to the Brompton Cemetery post.

Sinister angels again

As we were walking towards the southern part of the cemetery, the tombs, graves and crypts became more and more ornate and interesting. It had been the second big London cemetery we visited after the Highgate one. We will write about that another time. 

Several well-known personalities are buried here, but as we had no map, we didn't find none of their grave.
Here lies Emmeline Pankhurst, one of the well-known suffragettes who is regarded quite controversially because of her militant methods - windows smashing, attacks against police officers - who at the end of her life was so worried about the Bolshevik threat that joined the Conservative Party.
Here is John Snow buried, who is called the father of modern epidemiology because he was the first who recognized the relationship between cholera and contaminated water in the 19th century.
Here you will find the tomb of Henry Cole, the inventor, whose name is linked to the so prevalent Christmas card commercial release.

The main buildings are close to the southern entrance, with the octagonal Chapel and the spreading arcades

We left the cemetery to get to the busy and noisy Fulham Road, which did not seem very elegant. To the west is situated the Chelsea stadium, but this time we missed it.
Instead, we headed towards the River Thames through Hortensia Road, which at first lead us to the also busy King's Road. This is Chelsea's main street, but here it is far less cosy than the east, the part near Sloan Square.

So we crossed the road and followed down Ashburnham Road till Lots Road, which is an elongation of Cheyne Walk. Here we found the Chelsea Monster nicknamed old power plant which provided power to the London Underground  in the old times.

The ex power plant

Going further to east, in line with the River Thames we reached Cremorne Gardens and went out on a pier which looked having rather rickety legs. From there you can see some nice sights, such as the Shard, Europe's tallest building in the distance.

Pier

Over the pier we saw the first living boats. I didn't find too attractive these homes stranded in the mud...

These living boats are extremely expensive

Cheyne Walk is a road along the River Thames, unfortunately a busy one - leastways, when we were there. It's plenty of "blue plaque" houses. The blue plaque scheme started in the 19th century, and draws attention to a celebrity related to a particular site.

Blue plaques on the opposite side

You also find William Turner, the famous paintert's plaque on Cheyne Walk, and a concert scene of Antonioni's Blow Up was filmed in one the local houses.

Then we left the riverbank and went back to the King's Street.
We walked till Old Church Street, seeing Terence Conran's Bluebird restaurant on the way, which formerly was an elegant Art Deco garage in the 1920s.

The Bluebird on the left

On Old Church Street we set off again towards the Thames. On the way we found a building of a 19th century dairy, which was then transformed to a studio in the 1960's. Here was recorded, among others, the Pink Floyd's "See Emily Play/Arnold Layne" single.

A cow's head and decorated tiles on the wall

We walked through the narrow Justice Walk to Lawrence Street. Walking down on this street till Cheyne Walk, we went past the closed Cross Keys pub. The pub opened in 1708 and operated until 2012. Its regulars included Agatha Christie and Bob Marley.
After the closure, squatters lived here for a while. Although later managed to sell the pub, it was feared that the new owner would transform it into luxury apartments. Finally, due to petitions it  looks that it will work again as a pub.

The Cross Keys

On the corner of Cheyne Walk is situated the famous Carlyle Mansions, where many famous writers lived, such as T.S. Eliot, Somerset Maugham and Ian Fleming, who drafted his first James Bond story, the Casino Royale here and completed it later, in 1952 in Jamaica.

Carlyle Mansions

After going round the block we rather ran away from the noisy Cheyne Walk to Cheyne Row.
The number 24 was Thomas Carlyle, the famous Scottish historian's apartment, whom the aforementioned mansion (mansions) got its name.
One of the main works of Carlyle was The French Revolution and was close to surviving. He lent the manuscript John Stuart Mill, whose maid used it for kindling. Several years of research lost such way, and Carlyle had no appetite to start it again, but after Mill offered £200 as a compensation, he re-wrote the book.

Thomas Carlyle's plaque

From there we turned right onto Upper Cheyne Row, which is a wealthy and that day stunningly beautiful street. The Japanese Cherry was still in flower, but the still fallen petals thickly covered the sidewalk.

Petal rain

This row takes you to Oakley Street, which is an elongation of Albert Bridge, which connects Chelsea with Battersea Park.

From here we followed a winding way of small streets up to Flood Street and then we turned left and reached the King's Street again at the Antiquarius Building. The building used to be a Gentleman's Club in the first half of the last century, and later was one of the best-known antiques centre until 2009. Now an American fashion shop rents it. In one of the next doors was situated the famous, now closed Cafe Picasso, which was a favourite place of celebrities like Bob Geldolf, Eric Clapton and Gordon Ramsey. The location worked for fifty years, but in 2009 it bankrupted because of the recession. Now, the Black and Blue restaurant can be found here.

Antiquarius Building

This is a part of the King's Road which I like. Walking down the road, on the other side is a Pizza Express in a beautiful old building, the Pheasantry. They bred pheasants here a few centuries ago for the royal court. Later on,  a lot had happened in this place, such as Eric Clapton - who lived on the top floor in the '60s - and George Harrison were taking acid whilst writing songs, and this was the venue of early concerts of the Queen's or Lou Reed.

Pheasantry

Then again, we turned off the King's Road, but this time to north to Markham Street, so that not getting Sloan Square straight away. We were walking on tiny, cosy streets - Elystan Place, Anderson Street.

Tranquillity

We went backward through Blacklands Terrace and unfortunately just missed to go into John Sandoe's Books, which is allegedly one of the best independent book stores.

John Sandoe's Books

After that, we strolled across Sloane Square - one of my favourite squares in London- to the tube, and we got to Paddington.

Sloane Square

This walk, from the Brompton Cemetery's north entrance till Sloan Square took approximately three hours.

From South Kensington to the Brompton Cemetery

South Kensington is best known as a museum district. Get off the tube here if you want to see the Natural History, the Science or the Victoria and Albert Museums. And this is the best way to get to the Royal Albert Hall as well. We will have a separate post about museums, now I'm going to write about the first part of one of our latest walks which started here.


West from the station is the French district. Here, you find the Lycée Francais, the Embassy, the Institut Francais and shops and stores with some relation with France.
Based on some estimation, about 3-400 thousands French people live in London and so it is the 6th biggest French city in the world.
Most of the expats live in the East End or other outer part of London but their cultural centre is located here.

We started the walk from Cromwell Place and went through small mews up to the Lycée Francais.

A mews close to the Lycée. See the Natural History Museum's roof in the background

From this we went till Bute Street to visit the French Bookshop. In the street, they just started closing the market so I couldn't see whether it was a usual market or a French one.
The bookshop was nice and I was keen to check their comics offer. I found a lots of it, but they were a bit too expensive, so I will continue to order them from the Amazon.

The bookshop on the left

After Bute Street we walked into the small and cosy Reece Mews. Francis Bacon, one of the most influential painters of the second half of the 20th century lived in this place. The ground floors of some houses in the mews are occupied by Peter Bradfield’s car shops with amazing old cars. It is worth to check it out.

Shop window in Reece Mews

The entrance of Manson Mews from Queen's Gate

After this we walked down to Old Brompton Road through Queen’s Gate and Manson Mews and then started off towards the cemetery. We went past the building of the Royal British Society of Sculptors which contains the offices and exhibition rooms of this charity which is patronised by, among others, the Queen.

Royal British Society of Sculptors

After this we turned left to Roland Gardens and cut across Roland Way to returning to Roland Gardens again. Here you face painting studios right opposite side of the end of Roland Way.

Studio in Roland Gardens

We walked forth till Gilston Road where we turned right and get to the Boltons. The Chinese wisteria was just flourishing which made the whole street beautiful.

Chinese wisteria

The Boltons is a wealthy street with an oval  private garden in the middle; there are so many similar in London with entrance just for the residents.

Residents only

In the middle of the garden, accessible and surrounded by a public way is situated St Mary the Boltons. We sat down with the children for a rest and were watching the angels on the roof of the church whether they moved when we closed our eyes.

Angels

After this short break we returned to Old Brompton Road. On the site of the school on the corner was the house of Beatrix Potter, the famous author and illustrator.

Plaque of Beatrix Potter

Over the corner of Warwick Road and Old Brompton Road we went into the Pembroke public house for a drink and to rest a little bit. The pub wasn't special though the staff was friendly so we spent just a half an hour there.

However, the next door was the Troubadour’s one which is one of the last remaining café house from the 1950’s and it is a famous one. It is (used to be) a gig venue and  here used to perform, among others, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Morrisey.

Troubadour's door

It takes just a couple of minutes from this door to get the Brompton Cemetery, walking down Brompton Road. The cemetery is one of the Magnificent Seven Cemeteries, which are London big cemeteries; all of them established in the 19th century. This one was consecrated in 1840 and you will find here more than 205 thousands of graves.

The cemetery's northern entrance from inside

This part of our trip took about 2 hours including the rest in the pub and on the bench in the church garden.
I used Lomo effect on the pictures because the weather was grey at that time.
Next post will be about the cemetery and the second part of our walk in Chelsea…