Disappearance of Martin Allen

The Flying Scotsman is a Grade II listed public house at 2–4 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, London.It was originally called The Scottish Stores, and was designed by the architects Wylson and Long, probably for James Kirk, and built in 1900–01.The Flying Scotsman closed in November 2015, and re-opened as The Scottish Stores (its original name) in December 2015, as a pub specialising in craft beer.The pub features in the 1999 film The Protagonists.

King's Cross was a short-lived building in London which gave its name to the area still known as Kings Cross. The building was erected in 1830, as the base for a memorial to the recently deceased King George IV. A statue of the late king was added in 1835, but then removed in 1842, and the structure was demolished in 1845. The structure was built using public subscriptions, raised by its architect and promoter Stephen Geary. He exhibited a model of "the Kings Cross" at the Royal Academy in 1830. The project was originally intended to be called "St George's Cross". The amount raised was disappointingly low, and the structure was correspondingly less impressive than intended. It was constructed at the junction of Gray's Inn Road, Pentonville Road and New Road (developed in 1765, and renamed Euston Road in 1857), in an area previously known as Battle Bridge, where York Way crossed the River Fleet, reputedly referring to a battle fought between Boudicca's rebellious army of Ancient Britons and soldiers of Ancient Rome. It had an octagonal base with paired columns at each corner, a balustrade at first floor level intended to be decorated with four statues, one on each corner (either kings of England, or the patron saints of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland; but it is not clear if any statues were ever put in place), rising to a pedestal with a clock. From 1835, it was surmounted by a statue of George IV. The statue stood 11 feet (3.4 m) high, on top of the 60 feet (18 m) high building. The statue cost no more than £25. It was constructed of bricks and mortar, and finished in a manner that gave it the appearance of stone, "at least to the eyes of common spectators". It was described by Walter Thornbury as "a ridiculous octagonal structure crowned by an absurd statue". It was one of the buildings criticised by Pugin in his 1836 polemical book Contrasts, which advocated a revival of the medieval Gothic style. Pugin compared King's Cross unfavourably with the medieval Chichester Cross. The upper storey was used as a camera obscura. The base was used for exhibitions, then as a police station, and later a public house. The statue was shoddily built, never satisfactory, and was removed in 1842. The building remained in the middle of a public road, and became a hazard to traffic. The building was demolished in 1845, with a report in The Illustrated London News mentioning its "grandiloquent name of King's Cross'". King's Cross railway station opened nearby in 1852. In 2014, with the redevelopment of the King's Cross area, there was a proposal to "put the king back into Kings Cross" by erecting a plaque to the memorial.

Scala is a former cinema turned nightclub and live music venue in Pentonville Road, London, England, near King's Cross railway station.

All Visual Arts is a contemporary arts organisation founded in 2007 by gallerist and writer Joe La Placa, and Mike Platt. The gallery is currently located at 2 Omega Place, King’s Cross, London, N1 9DR.Prior to co-founding All Visual Arts, La Placa ran the Gallozzi-La Placa gallery with Guillaume Gallozzi in New York in the 1980s. La Placa claims he was first to exhibit artists such as Keith Haring and graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, however there is no evidence of this other than an interview given by La Placa himself; La Placa later worked as a writer and editor for Art Review based in London as well as the director of artnet.com in the UK. All Visual Arts functions as both a gallery and a private collection, commissioning works from the artists, and subsequently placing them in collections including François Pinault's.Major exhibitions organized by All Visual Arts include 'The Age of the Marvellous' in 2009 at the Holy Trinity Church in Marylebone, and 'Vanitas: The Transience of Earthly Pleasure' at 33 Great Portland Place in 2010, showcasing artists such as Turner Prize nominees Jake and Dinos Chapman, Reece Jones, Polly Morgan, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, as well as Turner Prize winner Keith Tyson. Mark Sanders, a former arts editor for Dazed & Confused, has joined All Visual Arts as a director.In September 2010, All Visual Arts moved to its permanent gallery space, a 5,000 square foot former bus depot at 2 Omega Place, Kings Cross.

King's Cross Thameslink station is a closed railway station in central London, England. It is located on Pentonville Road, around 250 metres (0.2 mi) east of King's Cross mainline station. At the time of closure, in 2007, it was served by Thameslink trains and managed by First Capital Connect. The station opened in 1863 as King's Cross Metropolitan. It was one of the initial seven stations on the Metropolitan Railway, London's first underground line, which ran between Paddington and Farringdon. The Metropolitan had been planning for the station since 1851, when King's Cross mainline station was constructed, to provide a connection between the Great Western Railway at Paddington and the Great Northern Railway (GNR) out of King's Cross. Within a year of opening a pair of tunnels was added, which surfaced on the GNR just north of King's Cross and provided a direct rail connection between the two lines. In 1866 the line was extended east to Moorgate and Snow Hill tunnel was built to join the London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) City Branch at Ludgate Hill. In 1868 a second pair of tracks known as the City Widened Lines was opened along with a tunnel connection to the Midland Railway near St Pancras station. The route through the station was very busy throughout the remainder of the century, carrying trains from five companies. In 1892 the station was linked to the concourse of King's Cross mainline station by a foot tunnel. The opening of the Piccadilly and Northern underground lines, as well as the growth of trams on the surface streets, led to a sharp reduction of services on the City Widened Lines in the early twentieth century. The Metropolitan line remained popular, however, following electrification of its tracks in 1905–06. Passenger service was reduced to peak hours only during World War I, with no service through the Snow Hill tunnel, as the lines were used heavily for freight and troop movements. The line and station were closed for five months during World War II, following damage in The Blitz. Only the City Widened Lines platforms remained in use when the station reopened in 1941: the Metropolitan line station was moved to a new pair of platforms which had been built at King's Cross St Pancras tube station, providing a shorter connection to the Piccadilly and Northern lines. Trains from the East Coast Main Line and Midland Main Line continued to stop at King's Cross Metropolitan. In the 1980s the City Widened Lines were electrified and the Snow Hill tunnel reopened to passenger traffic as part of the Thameslink programme. The station was renamed, first to King's Cross Midland City and then to its final name, King's Cross Thameslink. Service on the line grew and new destinations were added, and by the 2000s the station could no longer handle the passenger numbers. A new pair of platforms were built at St Pancras, and King's Cross Thameslink closed in 2007. The station was included in the London station group from the group's inception in 1983, and remained so until its closure.

The Poor School and Workhouse Theatre was a drama school situated in King's Cross, London, United Kingdom. The Poor School was created in 1986 by former Royal Central School of Speech and Drama vocal coach Barbara Caister in response to the need for first-class acting training which was financially within the reach of all, or almost all, and later taken over by her son, Paul Caister who ran the school for over 30 years. The two-year training programme at the school was in operation for 32 years, with graduates enjoying careers in theatre, film, radio, stage and comedy; ex-students have founded their own companies (Ridiculusmus and Sturdy Beggars, most notably) and have become producers, directors, casting directors and agents. The Poor School was not accredited by Drama UK and did not issue diplomas or certifications. It was announced in November 2016 that The Poor School was no longer accepting new students and the school closed at the end of July 2018. Its founder declined to comment on the reasons for the closure.The school offered a 2-year training programme and short courses. Shortly before The Poor School closed its doors, several long-serving staff members established The School in nearby Canonbury, offering a two-year acting training and short courses. Like The Poor School, training at The School is timetabled around evenings and weekends to allow students to work and earn whilst they train.

King's Cross railway station, also known as London King's Cross, is a passenger railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, on the edge of Central London. It is in the London station group, one of the busiest stations in the United Kingdom and the southern terminus of the East Coast Main Line to North East England and Scotland. 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. The station was opened in Kings Cross in 1852 by the Great Northern Railway on the northern edge of Central London to accommodate the East Coast Main Line. It quickly grew to cater for suburban lines and was expanded several times in the 19th century. It came under the 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. As of 2018, long-distance trains from King's Cross are run by London North Eastern Railway to Edinburgh Waverley, Leeds and Newcastle; other long-distance operators include Hull Trains and Grand Central. In addition, Great Northern runs suburban commuter trains in and around north London. In the late 20th century, the area around the station became known for its seedy and downmarket character, and was used as a backdrop for several films as a result. A major redevelopment was undertaken in the 21st century, including restoration of the original roof, and the station became well known for its association with the Harry Potter books and films, particularly the fictional Platform 9¾. Following extensive track remodelling in 2021, platform 10 was taken out of use, with platform 11 becoming the new 10.

A statue of Sir Nigel Gresley made of bronze stands near the booking office of London King's Cross railway station. It was commissioned by the Gresley Society in memory of Sir Nigel Gresley, a locomotive designer who worked in offices at the station and whose designs included Mallard, which set the unbroken steam locomotive speed record in 1938. The statue was designed by Hazel Reeves and cast in bronze at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. A decision taken by the Society to omit from the final sculpture a mallard duck that had been shown on the initial design led to what was described as "possibly the most acrimonious argument in the long, pedantic history of the railway hobbyist".

The Knowledge Quarter is a knowledge cluster, located in a small area of London around King's Cross, the Euston Road and Bloomsbury.The partners of the Knowledge Quarter include The British Library, The British Museum, Google, The Alan Turing Institute, Francis Crick Institute, SpringerNature/Holtzbrinck, The Wellcome Trust, The Guardian, Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Royal College of Physicians, UCL, SOAS, University of London and Working Men's College amongst others.

Kings Cross is a district on either side of Euston Road, in Central London, England, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of Charing Cross. It is served by two major rail termini, St Pancras and King's Cross. King's Cross station is the terminus of one of the major rail routes between London and the North.The area, which was historically the south-eastern part of the parish and borough of St Pancras, has experienced significant regeneration since the mid-1990s; the introduction of the Eurostar rail service at St Pancras International and the rebuilding of King's Cross station, helped stimulate the redevelopment of the long derelict railway lands to the north of the terminii.

Argyle Square is a garden square in the London Borough of Camden in London, England. It is the main public park in Kings Cross. The square was built in the 1830s and 1840s, after the collapse of an attempt to build a music and arts centre in the area. Before its construction, the area was home to one of London's waste dumps. Almost all of the square remains in its original form, with numbers 7 to 47 (i.e. everything but the north side) Grade II-listed.It was the headquarters of the Swedenborgian movement in England, having been home to the New Jerusalem Church. However, the church was bombed in World War II, and later demolished as unsafe.Although originally built exclusively for residential properties (other than the church), the square is now home to a number of bed and breakfasts.

The King's Cross fire began at approximately 19:30 on 18 November 1987 at King's Cross St Pancras tube station, a major interchange on the London Underground. As well as the mainline railway stations above ground and subsurface platforms for the Metropolitan, Circle and Hammersmith & City lines, there were platforms deeper underground for the Northern, Piccadilly, and Victoria lines. The fire started under a wooden escalator serving the Piccadilly line and, at 19:45, erupted in a flashover into the underground ticket hall, killing 31 people and injuring 100. A public inquiry was conducted from February to June 1988. Investigators reproduced the fire twice, once to determine whether grease under the escalator was ignitable, and the other to determine whether a computer simulation of the fire—which would have determined the cause of the flashover—was accurate. The inquiry determined that the fire had been started by a lit match being dropped onto the escalator. The fire seemed minor until it suddenly increased in intensity, and shot a violent, prolonged tongue of fire, and billowing smoke, up into the ticket hall. This sudden transition in intensity, and the spout of fire, was due to the previously unknown trench effect, discovered by the computer simulation of the fire, and confirmed in two scale model tests. London Underground was strongly criticised for its attitude toward fires; staff were complacent because there had never been a fatal fire on the system, and had been given little or no training to deal with fires or evacuation. The report on the inquiry resulted in resignations of senior management in both London Underground and London Regional Transport and to the introduction of new fire safety regulations. Wooden escalators were gradually replaced with metal escalators on the Underground.