Posts Tagged ‘Western Goods Shed’

More from King’s Cross Goods Yard

Saturday, April 29th, 2023

My posts about my walk around King’s Cross led by the Greater London Industrial Archeology Society on Saturday 8th April 1989 continues with this post. The previous post was Coal Drops and Canal Kings Cross 1989

Western Goods Shed, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-23
Western Goods Shed, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-23

A couple of the others on this GLIAS walk are on the right edge of this picture, which gives a good impression of the state of the building at the time with scattered rubbish in the foreground and a large pile of it in the distance. You can find more about the site in Peter Darley’s post on the Gasholder blog, from which much of the information here comes.

Behind Western Goods Shed, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-11
Behind Western Goods Shed, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-11

The Western Coal Drops were converted to become a part of the Western Goods Shed in 1897–99 when the timber viaduct which had been on their west side leading over the canal to Samuel Plimsoll’s coal shoots in Cambridge Road in 1886 was also rebuilt. (I think ‘shoot’ was simply an alternative spelling of ‘chute’.) Darley says that this iron on brick Plimsoll Viaduct was later dismantled and re-erected on their east side when the Western Goods Shed was built. I think this was at the north end of the Goods Shed at left and the Coal Drop roof at right.

North End, Goods Shed, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-12
North End, Goods Shed, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-12

Although this was taken over a barbed wire fence, the next pictures (one below) were made from the other side of this. I think at least this row of buildings from the original 1850s buildings although in part rebuilt. I don’t think these have survived in the redevelopment though I could be wrong.

North End, Goods Shed, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-14
North End, Goods Shed, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-14

Another picture from further down the yard in the image above.

Eastern Coal Drops, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-16
Eastern Coal Drops, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-16

We returned to the northern end of the Eastern Coal Drops where I think this shows the brickwork that once supported the two lines of rails. In the distance you can just see the tops of the Kings Cross gasholders.

1864 Viaduct, Kings X Goods Yard, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4g-62
1864 Viaduct, Kings X Goods Yard, King’s Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4g-62

This shows a ground level view of the ‘Berlin Bank’ viaduct seen in an image on my previous post at left and also on the right the viaduct for the Eastern Coal Drops. The area was still in use for storage and as you can see several vehicles were parked around in and between the arches.

Eastern Coal Drops, Kings X Goods Yard, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4g-64
Eastern Coal Drops, Kings X Goods Yard, King’s Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4g-64

Another view at ground level between the two coal drops, looking towards the Eastern Coal Drops.

Under the 1864 Viaduct, Kings X Goods Yard, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4g-41
Under the 1864 Viaduct, Kings X Goods Yard, King’s Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4g-41

For this picture I used flash to illuminate the brick arch which was only dimly lit. Beyond this the area of the actual coal drops was open above and illuminated by daylight.

Coal Drops, Kings X Goods Yard, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4g-33
Coal Drops, Kings X Goods Yard, King’s Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4g-33

The viaducts merged together at the northern end of the Coal Drops site.

Coal Drops, Kings X Goods Yard, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4g-34
Coal Drops, Kings X Goods Yard, King’s Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4g-34

This is now part of the restored building which can be seen from what is now called Stable Street. It was the last of the roughly 50 pictures I took inside the Kings Cross Goods Yard where I was able to benefit from the insights of several of the country’s leading industrial archaeologists before the GLIAS walk ended at the exit from the area on York Way.

From there I continued to wander unguided around the area to the north of Kings Cross and St Pancras stations, and I will continue with pictures from this in the next post in this series.

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

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Coal Drops and Canal Kings Cross 1989

Thursday, April 27th, 2023

Coal Drops and Canal Kings Cross 1989: My posts about my walk around King’s Cross led by the Greater London Industrial Archeology Society on Saturday 8th April 1989 continues. The previous post was Gasholders, Flats and the Goods Yard – Kings Cross 1989

Eastern Coal Drops, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-44
Eastern Coal Drops, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-44

The Coal Drops Yard was reopened to the public in 2018, 29 years after I made the pictures in this post as what TripAdvisor calls “King’s Cross’ boutique shopping and foodie hotspot“, and I went along shortly after they opened to take some photographs of the transformed site which you can see on My London Diary at Euston to Kings Cross Coal Drops. You can read more about its early history in a post by Peter Darley on the Gasholder site.

Eastern Coal Drops, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-45
Eastern Coal Drops, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-45

Coal was carried in railway waggons from coalfields in the Midlands and North of England to the coal drops and these facilities built in the 1850s were an early example of bulk handling of goods. The Eastern Coal Drops, together with a coal and stone basin opened in 1851 could handle 1,000 tons of coal a day. Later around 1860 a second set, the Western Coal Drops were added. Derelict for many years, parts of the Eastern Coal Drops were badly damaged by fire in 1985.

Coal Drops, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-46
Coal Drops, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-46

Rather than unload the coal waggons by hand, the coal drops allowed a waggon at a time to be discharged into a storage hopper below, at the bottom of which it could be fed into sacks and loaded onto the waiting horse-drawn coal carts. There was also a coal drop to allow the waggons to be discharged into barges for onward transit.

The waggons could be tipped sideways in a special rig to empty, but it was easier to use waggons which had a bottom that could be opened to simply let the coal fall into the hopper of the floor below the track.

Gasholders, Regents Canal, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-31
Gasholders, Regents Canal, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-31

As well as supplying coal to businesses and homes across London, the nearby gasworks would also have been a major coal user. But I imagine they would have had their own rail sidings for delivery. The gasholders have been relocated since I made these pictures, which sometimes makes it difficult to understand the geography of the area.

In 1866 a viaduct was opened across the canal from the Western Coal drops to Samuel Plimsoll’s coal yard on the south on what was then Cambridge Street (marked as Coal Shoots on the OS map. He patented an improved coal drop which treated the coal more gently and avoided much of the breaking up and dust produced by the earlier drops and was more suitable for the softer household coal he traded in. (There were also coal drops on the other side of Cambridge St, on a siding from the lines into St Pancras.) However visiting the Camley Street Natural Park now on his site shortly after it opened in 1985 I found at least in parts the ground was still more coal dust and fragments than soil. Parts of the demolished viaduct could still be seen when I photographed from the canal towpath in 1979.

Viaduct, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-33
Viaduct, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-33

As well as taking waggons full of coal to the coal drops, a second track was needed on the viaducts to bring back the empty waggons, which were moved sideways using a traverser or waggon turntable. I think these had long disappeared before our visit in 1989.

This picture is I think of the viaduct for the Western Coal Drops, and the sign BERLIN BANK presumably reflects its use as a location for a film. Perhaps someone can tell me more.

Western Goods Shed, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-34
Western Goods Shed, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-34

The covered loading bay of the Western Goods shed was in rather poor condition at the south end, but was still providing cover for the loading and unloading of lorries further along. The lorries have the name ‘newsflow’, a name now in use for a number of media and news aggregators but then I think rather more physically connected with the newspaper and magazine industry, possibly for delivery of the printed papers.

Although looking rather derelict parts of the area were still in use for various purposes and I think a small piece of sculpture visible here suggests a sculptor’s studio. In the 1980s and 90s the goods yard was a popular spot for raves.

Viaduct, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-35
Viaduct, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-35

We were able to wander around the area fairly freely, although there were obviously some rather dangerous areas where we could have fallen like the coal, and others where roofs or walls seemed unsafe. But our wanderings make it difficult to place the exact location of some of my pictures. I think this is the viaduct for the Eastern Coal Drops, and it clearly shows the two tracks, one for the coal drop and the closer for the return of emptied waggons. Underneath you can see the area for the hoppers and where carts would be loaded, in the picture used for parking. Across the tracks are a line of newsflow lorries.

More of my pictures from the GLIAS walk around the area in a later post.

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

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