Cheney Rd | >Re-PHOTO

Between Kings Cross & St Pancras: A week after my previous walk which began from Kings Cross I was back there again for another walk on Sunday 18th February 1990, beginning with a few pictures close to the station in Kings Cross and Somers Town. This was an area I’d photographed in earlier years but still interested me. Since 1990 it has of course changed dramatically.

*Cheney Rd, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2d-34*

Cheney Road is no longer on the map of London although one of the buildings on it remains. It ran north-east from Pancras Road along the side of Kings Cross Station, then turned north-west towards Battlebridge Road and the gasholders you see here. Of course those gasholders are no longer where they were in 1990, but were moved further north and to the opposite side of the Grand Union Canal as a part of the redevelopment of the area including the addition of the Eurostar lines into St Pancras.

This street was a popular film location, best known for its use in The Ladykillers. In the middle distance at left you can see the roof of the German Gymnasium, with its distinctive windows at its top, I think the only building in my picture that remains (at least in part) in situ.

*Pancras Rd, Somers Town, Camden, 1990, 1990, 90-2d-36*

St Pancras Hotel and stating seen looking south down Pancras Road on a sunny Sunday morning. I think I used the controlled parking zone sign to cut down flare. A taxi is turning into Kings Cross over a short section of cobbles.

The station was completed in 1869 and the Midland Grand Hotel in 1876, though it had its first visitors in 1873. Both were designed by George Gilbert Scott and are Grade I listed. They were built for the Midland Railway whose main lines ran from here to Manchester, Sheffield and Nottingham via Derby. The hotel was expensive to maintain and closed in 1935, then becoming used as railway offices by the London, Midland & Scottish Railway.

My first trip to Manchester in 1962 was from here, but soon after in 1967 the central section of the route – one of England’s most scenic – was closed. Now the line ends at Matlock (with a Couple of miles of preserved railway to the north, and we have change at Derby on our journeys to Matlock.

*Pancras Rd, Somers Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2d-21*

Looking north up Pancras Road with the arches of the station to the left of the picture and one of the gasholders in the distance. The curved pediment above the door in the middle block at right is the entrance to the German Gymnasium. This end of the Grade II listed building was demolished when St Pancras International was built, and the west end of the building was replaced by modern brickwork in keeping with the other walls of the building.

*Turnhalle, German Gymnasium, Pancras Rd, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2f-66*

This was the original west end of the Turnhalle at 26 Pancras Rd.

*Pancras Rd, Somers Town, Camden, 1990, 90-2d-22*

Kings Cross Automatic Gearbox Centre at 87-89 Pancras Road, Newport Joinery at 92 and other small businesses along the west side of athe road were all demolished to make room of the new platforms for St Pancras International

*Stairs, Stanley Buildings, Stanley Passage, Kings Cross, Camden, 1990, 90-2d-15*

A notice at the left of the stairs of Stanley Buildings flats, says NO to the British Rail bill in Parliament which would see the building of the new international station and the demolition of much of the conservation area. Despite much opposition, the Channel Tunnel Rail Link Act was passed in 1996.

Stanley Buildings were built in 1865, designed by Matthew Allen for the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company under the guidance of Sydney Waterlow. Grade II listed in 1994, but that has not enough to save them as they were and one block was entirely demolished and the remaining block incorporated into a modern building, losing much of its character. The listing text ends: “Among the earliest blocks built by Waterlow’s influential and prolific IIDC, Stanley Buildings are in addition an important part of a dramatic Victorian industrial landscape.” Their remnant now sits largely hidden in a modern development.

More from this area in a later post.

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This is the final part of my walk around King’s Cross after the walk led by the Greater London Industrial Archeology Society finished on Saturday 8th April 1989. The previous post was Goods Way, Gasholders & St Pancras.

Stanley Buildings, Stanley Passage, Cheney Rd, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4h-61 — *Stanley Buildings, Stanley Passage, Cheney Rd, King’s Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4h-61*

I was clearly in no hurry to get home and spent some time wandering around the area taking pictures. In this post they are in the order that I made them, along with some others, mainly near duplicates, but I haven’t kept to this in posting them to the album.

This block of flats was built 1864-5 by the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company, architect Matthew Allen. They were grade II listed five years after I made this picture and have been retained in the fairly comprehensive development around them, being incorporated after considerable rebuilding around 2014 into a modern office development.

The listing text decribes them as part of a group with the “King’s Cross Gasholders, Goods Way and Barlow’s great shed to St Pancras Station, Euston Road” and “in addition an important part of a dramatic Victorian industrial landscape.” Unfortunately this is no longer the case, and it is now simply an addendum to a modern development.

Gasholder, Cheney Rd, Battlebridge Rd, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4h-62 — *Gasholder, Cheney Rd, Battlebridge Rd, King’s Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4h-62*

Here and in the next picture we see a landscape and portrait view of a nearby part of that “dramatic Victorian industrial landscape”, now gone and replaced by modern blocks

*Gasholder, Cheney Rd, Battlebridge Rd, King’s Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4h-64-Edit_2400*

I made the landscape format view first, but then decided that it was probably better to include the top of the gasholder.

German Gymnasium, Cheney Rd, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4h-65 — *German Gymnasium, Cheney Rd, King’s Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4h-65*

The German Gymnasium on the south side of Clarence Passage was also built in 1964-5, paid for by the German Gymnastics Society and London’s German community and it had its front entrance on Pancras Road. It was one of the first venues used by the National Olympian Association for its first games in 1866.

Dancers, Mural, Stanley Buildings, Pancras Rd, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4h-56 — *Dancers, Mural, Stanley Buildings, Pancras Rd, King’s Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4h-56*

My favourite mural in London, on the side of this block of flats. I don’t know when this disappeared. The ‘preserved’ building has a huge featureless brick wall facing Pancras Road which could do with something like this to liven it up.

German Gymnasium, Cheney Rd, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4h-42 — *German Gymnasium, Cheney Rd, King’s Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4h-42*

Although this building was Grade II listed in 1976, part of its western end was demolished for the construction of St Pancras International, with a new end wall being built in matching fashion. The building is now in use as a restaurant and bar.

Culross Buildings, Kings Cross Station, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4h-43 — *Culross Buildings, Kings Cross Station, King’s Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4h-43*

I had wandered here to the side of the Motorail terminal at King Cross, where you used to be able to drive your car onto a train and sleep in a bunk bed all the way to Edinburgh or Aberdeen. This was the first such service, I think dating from the 1950s by British Rail, who set it up as Car Sleeper Limited, but it was soon joined by a network of similar services serving other stations and distant destinations, with London terminals at Olympia, Paddington and Euston.

As the motorway network grew, demand for motorail decreased, and I think the service from Kings Cross ended around the time I made this picture.

Culross Buildings, Kings Cross Station, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4h-44 — *Culross Buildings, Kings Cross Station, King’s Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4h-44*

Another image from somewhere around the north of King’s Cross Station where I had wandered.

Great Northern Hotel, Pancras Rd, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4h-45 — *Great Northern Hotel, Pancras Rd, King’s Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4h-45*

Back on Pancras Rd I walked to the eastern side of the Great Northern Hotel facing King’s Cross Station to take this picture of the main facade. The area in front of the hotel is now covered by the extended station building from 2008. The building was a part of Lewis Cubitt’s plans for the station, built in 1854 and Grade II listed in 1984. The slightly less impressive convex rear of the building is still fully visible on Pancras Rd.

Ox, Pancras Rd, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4h-46 — *Ox, Pancras Rd, King’s Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4h-46*

This rather threadbare beast was for some years a feature of Pancras Road, and although I’ve called it an Ox I think it was really a Bison. I think it was there simply to draw attention to the shop behind, or perhaps just to make it easier to find. Perhaps someone will be able to post more about it in a comment?

A short distance down the road was the Underground entrance at which my walk ended and my journey home began.

The first post on this walk was Kings Cross, St George’s Gardens & More

Tag: Cheney Rd

Between Kings Cross & St Pancras – 1990

Buildings, Dancers, Gym and a Bison