Curious King's Cross
published by Five Leaves
published by Five Leaves
Here's what Jeff Cloves says in IT:
'Recently a friend gave a me a copy of Curious King’s Cross by the broadcaster and social-cultural historian Andrew Whitehead. I immediately wondered if Bob Dylan’s gig at the KX pub The Pindar of Wakefield in 1962 was mentioned and blow me down here’s a chapter, Don’t think twice, which does exactly that. I was at that gig – the only time I’ve seen BD live – and here’s Brian Shuel’s famous photo of him in the corduroy cap and faux-suede jacket he wears on the sleeve of his first LP.
'This is a gem of a book which tells me all sorts of things I didn’t know about KX and reminds me of all sorts of things I’ve forgotten about its places and people. Want to know about Platform 9 3/4 for the Hogwarts Express, about Mary Wollstonecraft’s burial in Old St Pancras, what happened to KX’s gasometers, about cruising in St Pancras, ice wells, Grimaldi the clown, how a fish and chip shop was bugged by MI5, the history of Housmans’ radical book shop and its association with Peace News at ‘5 Cally Road’ (where you can undoubtably buy this book) and about the filming of The Lady Killers? Enough already – just buy it. It’s so teeming with info, energy, and enthusiasm I wish it had an index.'
take a look at some extracts:
EGA Stays OK!
The Fairy Tale Estate
And listen to the author on
Radio London's Robert Elms programme - from 39 minutes in
'Recently a friend gave a me a copy of Curious King’s Cross by the broadcaster and social-cultural historian Andrew Whitehead. I immediately wondered if Bob Dylan’s gig at the KX pub The Pindar of Wakefield in 1962 was mentioned and blow me down here’s a chapter, Don’t think twice, which does exactly that. I was at that gig – the only time I’ve seen BD live – and here’s Brian Shuel’s famous photo of him in the corduroy cap and faux-suede jacket he wears on the sleeve of his first LP.
'This is a gem of a book which tells me all sorts of things I didn’t know about KX and reminds me of all sorts of things I’ve forgotten about its places and people. Want to know about Platform 9 3/4 for the Hogwarts Express, about Mary Wollstonecraft’s burial in Old St Pancras, what happened to KX’s gasometers, about cruising in St Pancras, ice wells, Grimaldi the clown, how a fish and chip shop was bugged by MI5, the history of Housmans’ radical book shop and its association with Peace News at ‘5 Cally Road’ (where you can undoubtably buy this book) and about the filming of The Lady Killers? Enough already – just buy it. It’s so teeming with info, energy, and enthusiasm I wish it had an index.'
take a look at some extracts:
EGA Stays OK!
The Fairy Tale Estate
And listen to the author on
Radio London's Robert Elms programme - from 39 minutes in
Sex, pubs and rock'n'roll - King's Cross has it all, and so much more ... from a fish-and-chip shop once bugged by MI5 to London's most enduring radical bookshop. Inside the main line station, there's the magic of platform 9¾ ... and just outside, the every bit as magical Keystone Crescent.
The locality has a lighthouse ... a Welsh tabernacle where services are now conducted in Amharic ... social housing with a fairy-tale feel ... a canal-side well built to store huge blocks of Norwegian ice ... and a cruising club based in a water point which once supplied steam trains.
The area has been repeatedly re-branded ever since the 1820s, when the cinder heaps of Battlebridge were given the more marketable name of King's Cross, replete with a royal statue which so 'grievously offended the eye of taste' it was pulled down after less than a decade.
Andrew Whitehead visits thirty or so buildings and locations which offer a fresh take on one of London's most varied and surprising neighbourhoods; Brian Kelly supplies bespoke photos; and a map designed by Nancy Edwards will encourage readers to follow in the author's footsteps.
Curious King's Cross is published by Five Leaves, 120pp, £9.95 -
it is on sale at OWL BOOKSHOP in Kentish Town
and at HOUSMANS on Caledonian Road among others
and post free (in the UK) from the publishers, Five Leaves
... it's also available on Amazon.
The locality has a lighthouse ... a Welsh tabernacle where services are now conducted in Amharic ... social housing with a fairy-tale feel ... a canal-side well built to store huge blocks of Norwegian ice ... and a cruising club based in a water point which once supplied steam trains.
The area has been repeatedly re-branded ever since the 1820s, when the cinder heaps of Battlebridge were given the more marketable name of King's Cross, replete with a royal statue which so 'grievously offended the eye of taste' it was pulled down after less than a decade.
Andrew Whitehead visits thirty or so buildings and locations which offer a fresh take on one of London's most varied and surprising neighbourhoods; Brian Kelly supplies bespoke photos; and a map designed by Nancy Edwards will encourage readers to follow in the author's footsteps.
Curious King's Cross is published by Five Leaves, 120pp, £9.95 -
it is on sale at OWL BOOKSHOP in Kentish Town
and at HOUSMANS on Caledonian Road among others
and post free (in the UK) from the publishers, Five Leaves
... it's also available on Amazon.
This map was designed by Nancy Edwards - http://www.nancyedwards.co.uk/
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CURIOUS KING'S CROSS
1 The King of King's Cross 2 Hogwarts Express 3 Entente Cordiale? 4 Council Housing that Kills 5 The Ladykillers 6 Prostitutes, the Priest and the Police 7 Hell and Hillview 8 A Bug in the North Sea 9 Father of Reform 10 EGA Stays OK 11 The Fairy Tale Estate 12 Staged Unity 13 Requiem for a Phone Box 14 The Hardy Tree 15 The Rights of Woman 16 Cruising in St Pancras 17 Raving at Bagley's 18 The Ice Well 19 On the Tiles 20 Dancing on Joey's Grave 21 Mrs Wilberforce's Yard 22 From Welsh to Amharic 23 Don't Think Twice 24 Tea Dances at the Bell 25 Crescent Magic 26 Seedy - with Character 27 The Pacifist and the Exorcist 28 The Lighthouse |
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Photos from the launch of Curious King's Cross at the Owl bookshop in Kentish Town, 29th November 2018
Bob Dylan performing at the 'Pindar of Wakefield' - photo by Brian Shuel and posted with his permission
A rave at Bagley's in 1994 - courtesy of DJ Andy Ward
At Grimaldi's grave
The Lovers' Statue at St Pancras station - photo Brian Kelly