Posts Tagged ‘German Gymnasium’

King’s Cross, St Pancras & Derbyshire

Saturday, July 22nd, 2023

Regents Canal, Granary, Kings Cross Goods Yard, Goods Way, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-5g-61
Regents Canal, Granary, Kings Cross Goods Yard, Goods Way, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-5g-61

I left London for a weekend in the middle of May 1989, going up to a conference in Derbyshire, taking the train from St Pancras to Chesterfield and then a bus journey with my family. We had come up to London by train and taken the Underground from Vauxhall to Kings Cross/St Pancras, arriving far too early for the train we had tickets reserved on.

I’m not sure if this was accidental or part of a plan by me to take a short walk and made some pictures before catching the train, but that is what I did, walking up York Road and then down to the Regent’s Canal on Goods Way to make this view across the canal.

Bridge, Granary, Kings Cross Goods Yard, Goods Way, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-5g-63
Bridge, Granary, Kings Cross Goods Yard, Goods Way, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-5g-63

A little further west on Goods Way I stopped at the bridge over the canal leading to the Granary. As you can see the view of the Granary then was restricted by a number of rather utilitarian buildings on the yard in front of it.

Gasholders, Goods Way, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-5g-64
Gasholders, Goods Way, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-5g-64

Further still along Goods Way, the road itself was between tall brick walls but gave a splendid view of the magnificent gas holders, including the fine triplet. I think some of the brick wall at right may remain, covered now in creeper, but on the left side are now new office buildings and no gasholders are in sight, with St Pancras International in their place. It’s a change I still find depressing, though at least the gas holders have been preserved in a new site.

Shops, Pancras Rd, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-5g-65
Shops, Pancras Rd, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-5g-65

I turned left into Pancras Road to take another picture of the block of shops containing the entrance to the Turnhalle (the German Gymnasium) with on one side the St Pancras Cafe and on the corner G Franchi & Sons, Locksmiths and Tools, with two ladders for sale leaning on its frontage.

I think photographers since W H Fox Talbot had always had a bit of a thing about ladders which perhaps made me take another picture of this scene, and I chose also to include the London taxi at left. I will have waited too for the man walking along the street to clear the shop, but as always there were also some elements outside my control.

Intercity train, gasholders, St Pancras Station, Somers Town, Camden, 1989 89-5g-66
Intercity train, gasholders, St Pancras Station, Somers Town, Camden, 1989 89-5g-66

Finally it was time to board my train and we were allowed onto the platform where it was waiting. I just had time to walk almost to the end of the platform and made this picture before we left the station.

King's Cross, St Pancras & Derbyshire
Baslow Edge, Derbyshire,1989

We did eventually get to Derbyshire and there was time while we were they for some short walks and I took just a few pictures. The first is I think on Baslow Edge.

King's Cross, St Pancras & Derbyshire
Well, Curbar, Derbyshire, 1989

And this well is in Curbar.

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Buildings, Dancers, Gym and a Bison

Tuesday, May 9th, 2023

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

89-4h-64-Edit_2400
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

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