Sitting just to the south of the famous station of King’s Cross St. Pancras, this residential neighbourhood is made up of the typically inner London combination of Victorian terraces and postwar council and ex-council blocks. The rumbling Euston Road makes up the area’s northern border, and provides all the transport links one could ask for, with the aforementioned King’s Cross St. Pancras and numerous bus routes perfectly positioned to take commuters and tourists across the city and even abroad. The residential roads are quiet despite their proximity to the thoroughfare, but there is still plenty of life if one wants it. The celebrated music venue, Scala, and numerous community pubs such as Drink, Shop & Do draw a crowd of both locals and students from the nearby universities. Surprisingly for an area as bustling as this, there is a good amount of nearby green space in the form of St. George’s Gardens and Brunswick Square, amongst others, where locals and visitors can get away from the hubbub to their north.

The area was once a village known as Battle Bridge, a corruption of ‘Broad Ford Bridge’, which formerly crossed the River Fleet. This mispronunciation leads to the rumour that the Romans and Boudica fought a battle here in AD 60. The area remained reasonably undeveloped until the New Road (now Euston Road) was constructed in 1756, travelling from Paddington to Islington, and providing a route for cattle to be driven down to Smithfield. Over the next century the area slowly grew, and when the railway came to the locality in 1852 it boomed, with industrial yards, numerous rows of houses, and hotels popping up rapidly to accommodate the increase in tourism. This industrialisation continued until the end of the Second World War when it became a nearly abandoned post-industrial wasteland. By the 80s the locality was notorious with prostitution and drug addiction, but this reputation meant that rents were cheap and artists moved in, kickstarting the subsequent gentrification and huge redevelopment of the area surrounding the station complex.

The area was once home to such eminent characters as the English war poet Wilfred Owen (1893-1918), and revolutionary leader and politician who helped found the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924).

The King’s Cross area to the north is currently under a massive redevelopment project, which has caused congestion to local roads, and a great deal of noise pollution during the day. This is not a good thing for local residents, in particular, those who are on low incomes or are in need of public services, as many of these have been removed in order to provide more space for the development. The Coal Drops Yard, a large retail development by the canal accented by pockets of green and open space, was completed in 2018. While footfall in this open-air shopping centre has not been as high as expected, the architecture of the space and the public spaces that surround it provide a series of social opportunities, experiences and visuals worth checking out.

Being one of the largest redevelopment projects in Europe, the nearby 67-acre King’s Cross site to the neighbourhood’s north is already having knock-on effects on it. The development’s significant transformation is the construction of 2000 new homes – a stark contrast from 2011’s sum total of 3 households in that area – which are nearing completion. Working closely with One Housing Group, the developers are striving to make sure that many of these houses are genuinely affordable. That being said, residents in the Saint Pancras neighbourhood have already seen rent increases since the developments have begun.