London King's Cross Railway Station

Over view
King's Cross railway station[3] [4]  is a major London railway terminus which opened in 1852 on the northern edge ofcentral London.

King's Cross is the southern terminus of the East Coast Main Line, providing high speed inter-city services toYorkshire, the North East and Scotland. Virgin Trains East Coast is the main inter-city operator with destinations including Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh. Other inter-city operators serving the station include Hull Trains andGrand Central. King's Cross is also a terminus for  Great Northern which provides commuter services to  North London,  Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire,  Bedfordshire and  Norfolk. Immediately to the west across Pancras Road is  St Pancras International, the London terminus of  Eurostar services to continental Europe. The two stations share  King's Cross St. Pancras tube station on the  London Underground network and taken together form one of Britain's biggest transport hubs. The station is 820 yards (750 m) north-east of  Euston, the southern terminus for the  West Coast Main Line<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22.4px;">.

The railway station and related railway line have been owned by the firstly the Great Northern Railway (GNR) (1852–1923), then the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) (1923–1948), the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (1923–1947), British Railways (1948–1994), Railtrack (1994–2001) and Network Rail (2001–present).

Founding
King's Cross was built in 1851–1852 as the London hub of the Great Northern Railway and terminus of the East Coast main line. It took its name from the King's Cross area of London, which was named after a monument to King George IV that was demolished in 1845.[5] Construction was on the site of a fever and smallpox hospital and it replaced a temporary terminus at Maiden Lane that had opened on 7 August 1850.[6]

Plans for the station were first made in December 1848 under the direction of George Turnbull, resident engineer for construction of the first 20 miles (32 km) of the Great Northern Railway out of London.[7][8] The detailed design was by Lewis Cubitt, the brother of both Thomas Cubitt (the architect of Bloomsbury, Belgravia and Osborne House), and of Sir William Cubitt (who was chief engineer of The Crystal Palace built in 1851, and consulting engineer to the Great Northern and South Eastern Railways). The design is magnificent in its simplicity, being based on two great arched train sheds, with a brick structure at the south end designed to reflect the main arches behind. In size, it was inspired by the 200 yards (180 m) long Moscow Riding Academy of 1825, which it handsomely exceeded at 269 yards (246 m). At the time King's Cross station was the last word in functional modernity. Lewis Cubitt was also responsible for the design of the Great Northern Hotel (see below), and the 1847 cast-iron railway bridge over the River Nene at Peterborough.

The main part of the station, which today includes platforms 1 to 8, was opened on 14 October 1852. The platforms have been reconfigured several times. Originally there was only one arrival and one departure platform (today's platforms 1 and 8 respectively), with the space between used for carriage sidings. As suburban traffic grew additional platforms were added in the 1860s and 1870s with considerably less grandeur. The suburban station building now containing platforms 9–11 is from that era.

Kings Cross Goods Yard incorporated the two main-line railway termini on the Euston Road, used by Kings Cross Station and St Pancras. It was first laid out by the Great Northern Railway Company in the early 1850s.

Redeveloping Kings Cross Goods Yard
Kings Cross Goods Yard incorporated the two main-line railway termini on the Euston Road, used by Kings Cross Station and St Pancras. It was first laid out by the Great Northern Railway Company in the early 1850s.

The sprawling mass of some 58 areas of warehouses, sheds, stables, offices and sidings chosen for redevelopment by British Rail in 1986. The ambitious proposals for the redevelopment by the London Regeneration Consortium were abandoned after the over-inflated property market collapsed in the late 1980's. When St Pancras the site for the international terminal for the Channel Tunnel high-speed rail link plans were reviewed. Selective recording of the area and some of the buildings was carried out by the RCHME recorded a selection of the buildings between 1990 and 1999 in the Kings Cross redevelopment area record.

Bus services
London bus routes 10, 17, 30, 45, 46, 59, 63, 73, 91, 205, 214, 259, 390, 476 and night routes N63, N73 and N91 pass in front of or at the side of the station.

King's Cross platforms
Many of the train stabling sidings were then upgraded and the worn out older parts removed.