Kings Cross, London

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.

King's Cross St Pancras is a London Underground station on Euston Road in the Borough of Camden, Central London. It serves King's Cross and St Pancras main line stations in fare zone 1, and is an interchange between six Underground lines. The station was one of the first to open on the network; as of 2021, it is the 4th busiest station on the network for passenger entrances and exits combined. The station opened in 1863 as part of the Metropolitan Railway, subsequently catering for the Hammersmith & City and Circle lines. It was expanded in 1868 with the opening of the City Widened Lines, and the Northern and Piccadilly platforms opened in the early 20th century. During the 1930s and 1940s, the station was restructured and partially rebuilt to cater for expanded traffic. The Victoria line connection opened in 1968. The 1987 King's Cross fire that killed 31 people is one of the deadliest accidents to occur on the Underground and resulted in widespread safety improvements and changes throughout the network. The station was extensively rebuilt in the early 21st century to cater for Eurostar services that moved from Waterloo to St Pancras, reopening in 2007.

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 Meeting Place is a 9-metre-high (30 ft), 20-tonne (20-long-ton) bronze sculpture that stands at the south end of the upper level of St Pancras railway station. Designed by the British artist Paul Day and unveiled in 2007, it is intended to evoke the romance of travel through the depiction of a couple locked in an amorous embrace.The statue, which stands in the Eurostar terminal, is reported to have cost £1 million and was installed as the centrepiece of the refurbished station. The work, commissioned by London and Continental Railways, is modelled on the sculptor and his wife.

The St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel forms the frontispiece of St Pancras railway station, one of the main termini in London and the final stop for international trains departing to Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and other destinations in mainland Europe. It opened in 2011, and occupies much of the former Midland Grand Hotel designed by George Gilbert Scott which opened in 1873 and closed in 1935. The hotel is managed by Marriot International.The building as a whole including the apartments is known as St Pancras Chambers and between 1935 and the 1980s was used as railway offices. The upper levels of the original building were redeveloped between 2005 and 2011 as apartments by the Manhattan Loft Corporation. Its clock tower stands at 76 m (249 ft) tall, with more than half its height usable.The hotel is located in the vicinity of Euston, King's Cross and St Pancras railway stations.

St Pancras railway station (), also known as London St Pancras or St Pancras International and officially since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It is the terminus for Eurostar services from Belgium, France and the Netherlands to London. It provides East Midlands Railway services to Leicester, Corby, Derby, Sheffield and Nottingham on the Midland Main Line, Southeastern high-speed trains to Kent via Ebbsfleet International and Ashford International, and Thameslink cross-London services to Bedford, Cambridge, Peterborough, Brighton and Gatwick Airport. It stands between the British Library, the Regent's Canal and London King's Cross railway station, with which it shares a London Underground station, King's Cross St Pancras. The station was constructed by the Midland Railway (MR), which had an extensive rail network across the Midlands and the North of England, but no dedicated line into London. After rail traffic problems following the 1862 International Exhibition, the MR decided to build a connection from Bedford to London with its own terminus. The station was designed by William Henry Barlow and constructed with a single-span iron roof. Following the station's opening on 1 October 1868, the MR constructed the Midland Grand Hotel on the station's façade, which has been widely praised for its architecture and is now a Grade I listed building along with the rest of the station. In the late 1960s, plans were made to demolish St Pancras entirely and divert services for King's Cross and Euston, leading to fierce opposition. The complex underwent an £800 million refurbishment to become the terminal for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link/High-Speed 1/HS1 as part of an urban regeneration plan across East London, which was opened by Queen Elizabeth II in November 2007. A security-sealed terminal area was constructed for Eurostar services to mainland Europe via High Speed 1 and the Channel Tunnel, with platforms for domestic trains to the north and south-east of England. The restored station has 15 platforms, a shopping centre, and a coach facility. London St Pancras International is owned by HS1 Ltd and managed by Network Rail (High Speed), a subsidiary of Network Rail.

The statue of John Betjeman at St Pancras railway station, London is a depiction in bronze by the sculptor Martin Jennings. The statue was designed and cast in 2007 and was unveiled on 12 November 2007 by Betjeman's daughter, Candida Lycett Green and the then Poet Laureate Andrew Motion to commemorate Betjeman and mark the opening of St Pancras International as the London terminus of the Eurostar high-speed rail link between Great Britain and mainland Europe. The location memorialises the connection between St Pancras station and Betjeman, an early and lifelong advocate of Victorian architecture.

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.

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.

Camden Town Hall, known as St Pancras Town Hall until 1965, is the headquarters of Camden London Borough Council. The main entrance is in Judd street with its northern elevation extending along Euston Road, opposite the main front of St Pancras railway station. It has been Grade II listed since 1996.

Sartorial Contemporary Art (2005–2010) was an artist-run gallery founded by Gretta Sarfaty Marchant, artist and curator, as a project-led space in central London, England. Originally based in an 18th-century Georgian house on Kensington Church Street. Sartorial Contemporary Art moved to Kings Cross in October 2008 where it has built a reputation for embracing newly emerging artists. The Guardian said of the Harry Pye exhibition, Me, me, me, "the gallery space has achieved maturity and it has become a real space within the artistic circuit." Sartorial Contemporary Art in house magazine The Rebel started in 2005, in collaboration with Harry Pye is released four times a year, usually connected with a current exhibition theme.