Kings Cross (London)

 district  Add category

 Upload a photo

Inner city district of Central London which straddles the boroughs of Islington and Camden (originally it was in the now defunct borough of St. Pancras).

Originally a village called "Battle Bridge", after the coming of the railways in the mid 19th Century and the two major stations (King's Cross in 1852, then St. Pancras in 1868) it became a busy suburb of London. It later became very run-down in the post war period and became a haven for prostitution and crime. From the 1990s onward, much gentrification and regeneration has taken place, and is a rapidly up and coming area of the capital, cemented by St. Pancras' rebirth as the Eurostar terminus which has seen many new hotels and office buildings spring up in the late 2000s. Some of the backstreets however remain very depressed and unwelcoming.