Stories – Page 3 – King's Cross Story Palace

1987-2018 King's Cross, London, UK

Aron Kennedy

Aron Kennedy, King’s Cross resident, takes us on a tour of St Pancras Old Church and The Gasholders, where he recounts some of his memories of growing up and thoughts on the changes in the area.

2018 King's Cross Station, London, UK

King’s Cross Connections: Podcast

Where are people going, where have they been and how are they connected to each other and to the station? What happens when you introduce serendipity and coincidence into the station’s waiting area? Recorded and produced by Social Broadcaster Lucia Scazzocchio

1891 - 2018 Hillview Estate, London, UK

Restoration drama

With its patterned brickwork, wooden sash windows and wrought iron railings, the Hillview estate stands as a beautifully restored remnant of Victorian King’s Cross, an area that has been transformed beyond recognition in recent years. Arranged in its present incarnation around four courtyards, it was built at the turn of the century by charity the ...

1980 - 1990s Pentonville Rd, London, UK

The Bell: Ghosts on the Dancefloor

A podcast opening the door to the Bell, an iconic lesbian and gay pub of the 80s and 90s. Kings Cross. A run down part of London, haunted by addicts, homeless people, sex workers – and queers, drawn there by the music and energy of one pub. The Bell. Situated on Pentonville Road, this shabby ...

2000s Wharfdale Rd, London, UK

Opening the Pandoras Box

I meet Paul Allchin at the British Library to talk about a night out in King’s Cross with ex-partner George Duff. The conversation moves from the night out to the roles we play in the lives of those we are closest to. It feels like we are a million miles from the small room at ...

1980 Drummond St, London, UK

Drummond St and the Bangladeshi experience

To get to the heart of the story of Drummond Street’s Bangladeshi community you have to first take a seat in one of the oldest Bengali restaurants there and soak up its charming atmosphere. The Diwana Bhel-Poori House lies in the middle of the busy street midway between Euston Station and Hampstead Road. It’s been ...

1960s Blundell St, London, UK

We don’t eat to live we live to eat.

When increasing numbers of Italian immigrants arrived in the Kings Cross area in the late 19th century they missed the culinary delights of home. Pastas, olive oil, olives and cheeses were in short supply until an astute hardworking local man by the name of Luigi Donatantonio decided to import local produce from his native Italy. ...

1998 - 2018 New Wharf Rd, London, UK

London Canal Museum

Martin Sach is the go to man if you want to know about the history of the icemen who lived and worked in Kings Cross. He’s been running the London Canal Museum on the New Wharf Road for the last 20 years. The museum is home to one of the only surviving ice wells in ...

1910 King's Cross, London, UK

Iceman of King’s Cross

Edward Margiotta’s grandfather was an iceman. Like many Italian migrants at that time, he worked for the hugely successful Carlo Gatti empire, loading great blocks of ice onto a horse and cart and distributing it around the Kings Cross area in the early 1900’s. Later, when Edward’s mother was born he moved to Hammersmith where ...

1980s Cromer St, London, UK

Art Was My Anchor

Photographer Mark Cawson moved to Cromer Street in the early 1980’s and began living in a row of four squatted blocks – Hillview Estate. It was an eclectic community of squatters including artists, musicians, circus performers, working girls and a small sub-set of people struggling with addiction. When short-life tenants – often ex-squatters themselves – ...

1960 London, UK

Rough As Guts

Christopher Watson was born on Christmas day in 1941. We met him in his house on Packenham Street, where he has lived for over 40 years. We discovered there a host of characters who have accompanied Christopher through the pubs, clubs and drag balls of King’s Cross and Soho from the 1960s to today. When Christopher ...

1986 King's Cross, London, UK

The Poor School

The Poor School was founded in 1986 by actor and director Paul Caister, in order to provide high quality, practical and affordable training for aspiring actors from all backgrounds. Paul has continued his groundbreaking work in the school up until the present day, but after ‘32 splendid years’, the school will be closing down in ...

1987 King's Cross Station, London, UK

You’re just a tiny cog

Chris Western was born in 1948, just after the war and raised in Fulham. His parents had both been involved in the Air force during the war, with his Father working as a Pilot and his Mother a WAFF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force). Because of this Chris always felt he wanted to be a pilot. ...

1929 Wynford Rd, London, UK

You could play football in the street

Born in 1929, Arthur Mills moved to a block of flats on the corner of Wynford Road and Penton Street when he was five. His mother refused to evacuate the family during the war and because the schools closed, Arthur’s early childhood was spent playing in the streets and bombed out houses. Wartime austerity meant ...

1987 King's Cross, London, UK

We didn’t want to be pioneers, we wanted to be parents

Outspoken Socialists Jennie Lazenby was born in 1954, and named after Jennie Lee, a Labour Politician. Her mother was Gloria Lazenby, who served as as a Labour Councillor for Camden from 1986 until 2002, and as Mayor of Camden in 1996. We talked to Jennie in the house she inherited from her mother, after she died ...

1980s The Bell, Pentonville Rd

Daughters Made for Each Other

Chrissie Joyce and Denise Spence first met each other at The Bell, a pub and venue on Pentonville Road during the 1980s/90s. With a shared Northern Irish heritage the two women had left Ireland seeking to escape – in Denise’s words – a climate of ‘drink, violence, religion and hate’. Gravitating to the King’s Cross ...

1970 - 2018 Central Station, Wharfdale Rd, King's Cross

Strippers and the Queen Mother’s birthday

Central Station is an unassuming pub, down a side street in King’s Cross. After work it welcomes the office-crowd, with its friendly atmosphere and free pool. After dark the blackout blinds come down, and the burlesque cabaret dancers step out. The basement houses a fetish club that Duncan Irvine – co-owner and manager – is ...

1979 Priory Green, London, UK

We broke in the normal fashion

Steve Lake moved to Priory Green Estate in 1979. Tipped off about an empty flat in Grimaldi House, a Dickensian building out of keeping with the rest of the estate, Steve and a few friends decided to make it their home. They broke into the flat ‘in the normal fashion’, and changed the locks to ...

1987 King's Cross Station, London, UK

I always felt like I could help people.

Roger ‘Dinger’ Bell began his time as a fireman at the Clerkenwell Fire Station back in 1974. His mother had worked as a nurse, which he says influenced his outlook on life. ‘I just didn’t like seeing people suffering, I always felt like I could help people’ As one of Londons oldest fire stations, Clerkenwell ...

1982 Marchmont St, London, UK

Did I come for a drama course, or to deal with my sexuality?

Jim MacSweeney moved from Ireland to London in 1982 to do a drama course, and found a world that felt 20 years ahead of the place he had left behind.By his own admission, he wonders whether he came for a drama course, or to deal with his sexuality. The move proved to be both a ...

1950-1990 King's Cross, London, UK

Grassroots politician who lived round the blocks

She represented King’s Cross as a councillor for 22 years and went on to serve three terms as the mayor of Camden, but it could be said Barbara Hughes’ political roots lie in the Hillview Estate. It was here she brought up her three sons in the 1950s and ‘60s and where as a young ...

1999 Hillview Estate, London, UK

It’s my home, for better and for worse

When Shola Alli moved onto Hillview in 1999, it was with mixed feelings. On the one hand, the estate’s refurbishment had just been completed and everything looked shiny and new. On the other, it was still damned by association with King’s Cross, whose own regeneration had not yet begun. “The area was still very much linked ...

2006 Hillview Estate, London, UK

Nice work if you can get it

It is a fine winter’s morning when I meet Hillview caretaker Khaled Ali, the sun beaming down from an impossibly blue sky. As we sit down to chat in the courtyard of Whidborne Buildings amid the luxuriant shrubbery it is hard to believe we are a stone’s throw from the Euston Road with its crowds ...

1978-2018 Hillview Estate, London, UK

From bleak to chic

When John Mason moved on to Hillview as one of the first shortlife tenants, he did not think he would still be there some 40 years later. After being burgled three times in one flat he ended up in another on the ground floor near one of the entrances. “It did not take long for ...