I began photographing the industrial and residential buildings of King's Cross and St.Pancras when I moved to Somers Town in 1986. I was particularly interested in the gasholders because of their intricate embellishments and their magnificent latticed frames. Whenever I photographed them people passing would stop to talk with me about their elegant structure and how it would not be King's Cross without them.  There were nine gasholders originally, and seven still standing in 1999, used until that date for supplying gas to King's Cross and its surrounding area. With the coming of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link and terminus at St. Pancras they had to be removed to make way for the new railway line. At the moment Gasholder 8 is still standing; but only for a little while. (For more details of the proposals, see under Gasholder 8.)

Click on the links to go to the photographs: 1. Old King's Cross buildings now demolished 1a. Demolition and after 2. The Triplets 2a. Dismantling the Triplets 3. Gasholder 8 4. St Pancras Railway Bridge 5. The coal drops  6. King's Cross flowers and birdsong and to my responses to the proposals: August 2005 and November 2005

The three largest gasholders known as The Siamese Triplets, and uniquely joined by a common spine, are now in storage around Gasholder 8. The latter is about to be dismantled and put in storage with the others. All four gasholders will be re-erected on the North side of the Regent's Canal very near St. Pancras Lock.
 
Uses for the gasholders
Argent (the developers) are planning to build housing within the triplets.  The use for Gasholder 8 has not been agreed yet but the general idea is that it should be for community use.

During a consultation period between Camden Council, Argent and the King's Cross Development Forum in 2004 I consulted with local people at my joint exhibition with Peter Herbert (entitled Altered Spaces, Quiet Places) and asked them to suggest uses for Gasholder 8.  These are the suggestions they came up with:

• a museum showing how The Imperial Gas Company worked and how the gasholders distributed the gas 

• a museum to show the history of the train and the canals, and some mention of the nineteenth century ballooning in this area

• a sports centre

• a dance centre

• a cinema

• an exhibition of what is on in London

• an art gallery

• a miniature Kew

• a music and media centre for young people

• a reference library

• a health centre etc. 

Finally a balloon could be attached to one of the gasholders as a viewing platform, as in Barcelona. 

Echoes from the past - Coal Drops
I support Argent's intention to make use of some of the old coal drops on the Railway Lands site.  It is expensive to do this and they must be applauded for this decision.  Features from the past should be echoed throughout the development married with the new.  If one looks at the photograph below it is clear how well the gasholder, the Granary and the Coal and Fish Depot are of a piece, from the point of texture and structure, and it is hoped that Argent will achieve a similar integration in their development.

A planning application to turn the Granary into a University of the Arts was recently passed by Camden Council.

There was a unique residence, too, before the building of the new Terminal, in the Stanley Buildings North and South, one with its memorable dancing mural of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire who so appropriately sang, 'The melody lingers on'. 

Both these buildings were cut in half in February 2002 to make way for the new railway lines on the eastern side of the station. And subsequently at the end of June 2007 Stanley Buildings North was completely demolished in order to leave space for a straight road by St Pancras International.

These buildings together with three others, now demolished, were erected in 1864-5 by the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company, whose chairman was Lord Stanley (later Earl of Derby and Prime Minister). They were designed by John Dower and adapted from Henry Robert’s model cottages for the Great Exhibition. These blocks had cast-iron access balconies served by an open central staircase. 

Now, in May, 2008, only half of Stanley Buildings South still remains. At the moment it is clad in white material decorated by Quentin Blake, the famous children’s book illustrator. It was decorated in this fashion for the opening of the new station on November 14th, 2007. It is sad to see such an important building hidden in this way despite the fact that Quentin Blake’s drawings are extremely entertaining, especially for children. Eventually Stanley Buildings South will be restored and as we are told it will be embedded in glass.

See my book RAILWAY LANDS Catching St Pancras and King’s Cross, pages 129 – 143 for more information.

Culross Buildings (due to be demolished almost immediately)
This large tenement block stretching along Battle Bridge Road, with a mission hall at the east end, also drew my attention. It was built in 1891 for the GNR as a replacement for dwellings it demolished. Now bricked up, the forty flats were reached from open communal stairs with wrought iron balustrades. The construction is of durable blue engineering brick and the floor is granite setts. The curved addition to the West, once a community office, has thirteen windows on three floors and is curiously attractive. My Culross Window Reflecting the Gasholders (right) was taken there in 2000.

Again for more information see my book Railway Lands, pages 145 – 157.

For the Arrivals Programme to celebrate the completion of St Pancras International Culross Buildings were lit up and images of trains and the St Pancras clock were projected on the Culross Walls. It made the public startlingly aware of the building’s beauty. It is a travesty that this building is to be demolished. The King’s Cross Conservation Advisory Committee produced a booklet in 2005 entitled Respecting the Railway Lands. In it they described how it would be possible to keep Culross in the new King’s Cross Central Development. Unfortunately their ideas were ignored.
 
Camley Street Natural Park offered, until February 2002, interesting shots of the gasholders, nature enhancing the view. After this date gasholders gave way to cranes. On completion of the Eastern side of the new shed at St Pancras station, to become St Pancras International, these reflections disappeared.
 
Opposite the park on the other side of the canal the curve of the Coal and Fish Deport adds a charm to this area. Local people were involved in saving this building for posterity and it is to be preserved in the King’s Cross Central development.
 
Again, see Chapter 10 of my book Railway Lands for photographs and information on the above.
 
The German Gymnasium appears in a number of photographs as an intrinsic part of the Victorian Structures, unique with its triangular roof. It was built in 1864 by Edward A Gruning for the German Gymnastic Society along the lines of such institutions in Germany. It opened in January 1865, initially for Germans, though within a decade at least half of its 1,100 members were English. 

Finally the St. Pancras Railway Bridge with Brill Place beneath supplied me with many moments of delight over the exquisite pink gothic arches and the play of light and shadow on its brickwork. It was a perfect place for a photographer.
 
After February 2002 this rail bridge and the road beneath it were blocked in. A tunnel was made further north up Pancras Road beneath the old coal drops. The old St Pancras railway bridge was demolished in June 2004.
 
Click here to see the photographs.
Click here to read an edited version of my response to the proposals for the development following the completion of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

Text above: With thanks to Camden History Society for permission to quote from Streets of St Pancras

Poetry and photographs © Angela Inglis 2008  I Home I Exhibitions I Writing I King's Cross I Credits and Links