What's new at Kings Cross (walk) and exhibition at The British Library

Francis Crick Institute

For my first walk of the New Year I joined Walk London With Us for an amble around the Kings Cross area to see what changes there had been. It was a small group, but nice to see a few familiar faces as well as meeting some new people. I don't usually get the chance to join the Wednesday walks as it's my choir rehearsal day, but choir doesn't resume until next week.

Kings Cross is one of three main line London terminals with underground stations (I think there are 6 converging at Kings Cross and St Pancras). Down the road is Euston. You can get to most places from one of these stations. Thames Link runs from Brighton to St Albans and you can go to the Midlands and to Scotland, and of course on Eurostar there is Paris and beyond. Soon there will be Cross Rail (Elizabeth Line) and Crossrail 2 (if it ever gets built!). There is always something exciting about stations, well at least for me!

The group met outside The British Library and after a quick chat we set off down Midland Road which runs between the library and St Pancras station. The first building we looked at was the Francis Crick building. The roof compliments St Pancras station and the building itself is dedicated to science. Apparently one third of the building is below street level. We were told there is a cafe open to public on Wednesdays to Fridays. After the walk I actually went back and inside to ask about the cafe but was told it is only open to public when there is an exhibition on. The next one is in March. Might be worth going back.

We walked through St Pancras station and out on the other side. We looked at a block of original dwellings, now refurbished and used as offices, (the German Gymnasium is opposite which is now a very good restaurant, so said one of our group. No good for me though as it's meat based!). We headed into St Pancras Square. This is lovely space with water feature, new trees and grassed areas. I would imagine that in the summer this is really busy.

We crossed over Regent's Canal to Granary Square and headed for Coal Drops Yard. As the name suggests this was where coal came into London and was 'dropped'. Apparently 1,000 horses worked here moving coal around. Many of the horses would have been stabled here, and possibly at the nearby stables at Camden (by the market). These days it contains upmarket shops, green spaces and walkways.

The area is what is known as a privately owned public space (aka POPS). This means that they have their own security guards (they were very evident as we walked around). Other POPS spaces I know of are The Barbican and Canary Wharf. We nipped into the Kings Cross Information Centre where there was a wonderful model of the development along with a wall display of the history of the area. There was a handy booklet available to take away as well.

Next we headed to the Aga Khan Institute which opened in 2018. It is open to public and there is a free gallery display on the ground floor (though there wasn't time to see it). The rest of the building can be viewed on a booked tour. I have already checked this out and it is fully booked until March with no new dates yet available. I'd love to visit, so I will have to keep an eye on the website.

On our way back we headed to the Granary walking through the area where the original Kings Cross station was. In fact we walked along the tracks! When it was first built engineers didn't know how to build under the canal so the station stopped just before it. Now it runs under the canal, while St Pancras runs over the top of it! Here also there was potato market, and when Billingsgate was closed on Sunday, you could buy fish here too. So, here is the original fish and chips!

Back to the square with its four fountains (and 1,000 water spouts) and here we began to head off in different directions. I went back towards The British Library as I decided that while I was here I'd take in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms exhibition.

The exhibition charts the groups of Germanic speaking people who came across the north sea to Britain - Saxons, Angles and Jutes. In the six 'rooms' were ancient texts - laws, decrees, bibles, histories - and artifacts, such as jewellery, coins, crosses and a sword. Possibly the best known writer of English history at that time was Bede (his book was there c. 731). I read this years ago, obviously a translation! I was most impressed with the Alfred Jewel and also the early Books of Psalms with their first attempts at music notation. Early music is fascinating to me. The notes looked at times like shorthand and there were no ledger lines. Of course there was the Doomsday Book, the Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels. So many texts! The exhibition was very busy, what I call slow moving traffic! Ideally I go to exhibitions early to try and avoid this.

Exhibition entry fees are so expensive these days and I am so pleased I have my Art Fund Pass. Although membership is expensive I certainly get my monies worth out of it! Today I got in for half price, and often I get into houses for free. If you like art and visiting heritage places it is the best all round card to have.