King's Cross Station

The Kings Cross Station, or King's Cross, is a railway station in London, United Kingdom.

Immediately to the west of the station is St Pancras station. Both stations work completely independently, but they are so close that they can be understood as a single complex where transfers can be made. They share King's Cross-St Pancras tube station.

Situation

The station is located in the Kings Cross neighborhood to the north-east of the city centre, Camden district. And next to it is St. Pancras Station.

To the west of Kings Cross station are, in that order, St. Pancras station, the new British Library building and Euston station, all within a few minutes' walk. The current Kings Cross Thameslink station is to the east, also very close.

In an area just north of Kings Cross and St. Pancras stations, the new terminus of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link has been built, the high speed linking London to Paris through the tunnel that passes under the English Channel. Eurostar trains providing this service have been arriving at the new station since 2007, in the second phase of the channel tunnel railway project.

In recent years efforts have been made to regenerate the area, with the construction of new hotels and office areas.

Rail services

London Northern Eastern Railway (LNER) line

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North Thameslink Line

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Hull Trains Line
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1 Just up north sense, just down south sense

Grand Central Lines
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A GNER train at Kings Cross Station is named "White Rose" (White Rose) in honor of the traditional Yorkshire symbol.

From this station, services link London with different locations in the east and north-east of England and Scotland, such as Cambridge, Peterborough, Leeds, York, Darlington, Durham, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen. Kings Cross also includes a major London Underground station, known as Kings Cross St. Pancras Station, one of the main interchanges on the Underground network.

As of 2018, four railway companies operate regular services:

• London North Eastern Railways (LNER) - Interurban and high-speed services, on the main line of the East Coast (LNER)East Coast Main Line).
• Thameslink - regional trains to Cambridge and King's Lynn, nearby services north of London, and Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Peterborough.
• Hull Trains - high-speed and interurban services to Hull by the main line of the East Coast.
• Grand Central - high-speed and interurban services to Bradford and Sunderland by the main line of the East Coast.

History

The neighborhood's English name, King's Cross, comes from an ancient monument to King George IV of England.

A popular legend claims that the station stands on the original site of the final battle of Boudicca. It is also said that his body could be buried on the land occupied by the station.

Kings Cross Station was originally designed and built as a hub for the Great Northern Railway and as a terminus for the East Coast Main Line. It was designed by Lewis Cubitt and its construction lasted two years, between 1851 and 1852, on the site of an old hospital for patients with fevers and smallpox. Cubitt resolved the brick structure with virtually no embellishment. Its façade consisted of a central tower set between two large arches that replicated the two glass and iron barrel vaults behind them. It was a type of construction for which there were no previous models or any kind of template.

The result is one of the most satisfying early Victorian buildings in London, and in all of England. The main part of the station, which today includes platforms 1 through 8, was opened to the public on October 14, 1852. The first era of what might be called railway architecture came when in the 1840s the number of travelers increased and New stations were necessary that housed rooms in which to rest, cool off, and protect themselves from the weather conditions.

The platforms have been restructured several times. Originally there was only one platform for departures and another for arrivals (the current platforms 1 and 8). In later years, with the growth of rail traffic, new platforms were built, reducing the size and magnificence of the original ones. The secondary building that currently houses platforms 9, 10 and 11 dates back to that time.

In 1987 there was the so-called "Kings Cross fire" (Kings Cross fire), in which 31 people died. Said fire actually occurred at St. Pancras station.

Exterior of the station in the 2010s

On July 7, 2005, a terrorist attack took place, in which a bomb exploded in the subway station and another in a double-decker bus near the station.

King's Cross in Fiction

Harry Potter

The sign of the platform 93⁄4 often causes agglomerations due to tourists and fans of the books of "Harry Potter" that approach to photograph it.

Carrito portaequipaje en el Andén 93⁄4.

Kings Cross appears in the Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling as the departure point for the Hogwarts Express. The train uses a secret platform, platform 9¾, located between platforms 9 and 10.

Paradoxically, platforms 9 and 10 are in a secondary building separate from the main one and face each other with the train tracks in between. Apparently Rowling intended this secret platform to be in the main part of the station but she got the platform numbers mixed up. In an interview given in 2001, she acknowledged that she had really confused King's Cross station with Euston station, which explains the confusion in the platform numbers.

In the films based on the books, Kings Cross main station was filmed with platforms 4 and 5 renumbered as 9 and 10. In the film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the exterior of the neighboring St. Pancras station was used, given the much more striking aesthetics of its Gothic façade. Currently, in recognition of the fame that the Harry Potter series has brought to the station, a wrought iron sign of "Platform 9¾" on a wall of the secondary building where the authentic platforms 9 and 10 are located. There is also a luggage trolley that seems to be halfway through the wall, in reference to the work, in which to access the aforementioned platform you have to cross Wall.

King Cross Station

On 1 September 2017, a souvenir shop opened opposite Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross. This place became one of the most visited in all of London as a large number of fans from all over the world go there in order to take a picture with the famous platform.

Other works of fiction

The British television series Doctor Who novel Transit depicts Kings Cross as one of the main hubs of an interplanetary traffic system based on the London Underground. London.

In children's shows on British television featuring the Roland Rat puppet, Roland was said to live in the sewers under Kings Cross station.

The late director Anthony Minghella's 2006 film Breaking and Entering, starring Jude Law, Juliette Binoche and Robin Wright Penn is set in London's King's Cross, on which an ambitious remodeling project is intended to be carried out.

Spelling

The name can be found written with and without an apostrophe:

• Kings Cross is the name of the area, as confirmed by English style guides and the usual use.
• King's Cross is the name "official" that appears in the signaling of the intercity and metro railway stations, as well as on the maps of the metro routes.
• However, Kings Cross is the "official" appeal in the railway time schedule databases, and is used in numerous Internet pages on rail services. The official website of Network Rail, a British company that manages the railway tracks, uses the form "King's Cross" since 2004.