When I first heard the name King's Cross (I was but a child), I never thought about who the King was. I just wondered what had happened to make said king so angry.
Does anyone else remember learning a poem at primary school (c. 1960) that began: 'King's cross - what shall we do?' There was a line: 'The court is shaking in its shoe' but I can't remember any more of it.
@@davidkimmins8781 The King Is Cross King's Cross! What shall we do? His purple robe Is rent in two! Out of his crown He's thrown his sceptre Into the Thames! The court is shaking In its shoes King's Cross! What shall we do? Leave him alone For a minute or two.
Fun fact: Until pretty recently, Kings Cross in Sydney was the red light district, and thus also of questionable reputation for some. My parents would translate the name into Dutch, which uses the same word for 'cross' as 'crotch'. Given what you've said about old George, perhaps Kings Crotch would be appropriate, especially since it's right next to St Pancreas. 😉 (Yes, yes, I know…)
I mean, compaared to the UK'S Kings Cross the area is still somewhat seedy at night, especially since its still littered with clubs, albiet far less then in it's most infamous peak of the 1970s
There's some great TV episodes that were ACTUALLY shot in Sydney's Kings Cross, including Heartbreak High (S1E29, featuring an 11-y/o girl who runs away from home - again, they filmed the scenes with her amidst the actual bustling street life in 1994!) and Underbelly season 3 (which is kind of a condensed history of the area). And if you want to know what Kings Cross is in Dutch; well it's "Koningskruis". But that sounds more like a valor of honor and translates better as "Royal cross". Just say "kruis van de koning" and you'll definitely get some chuckles.
To paraphrase Douglas Adams, 1980s King's Cross in the small hours was a place where you could readily buy sex from a prostitute, hard drugs from a dealer, or (God help you) a kebab from a street vendor.
As a child growing up in the 1970s I recall the station was a popular haunt for 'ladies of negotiable affections' to peddle their trade. An awkward conversation for my father trying to explain what was going on as we waited for our train! Oh how times have changed, for the better I may add.
I was on the way to a conference oop north and had to get a train very early in the morning. I arrived at 6am at KX and as I was about to enter the station I was waylaid by an elderly female, in her 70s, who asked me to help her cross the road to the south of the station. Boy scout that I am I helped her across the road. When we got to the other side she asked me 'business?' Needless to say I declined her offer. The conference went well. But boy in the 80s was KX sleazy
I'm 56 and can remember King's Cross as being full of ne'er-do-wells trying to sell tourists seeking hash walnuts wrapped in silver foil. (pre Cling Film days!).
Can i just say that I've recently discovered your channel and I'm literally obsessed. Like, i mean, LITERALLY obsessed. Your videos are so intriguing and I love your sense of humour. Please never stop 🙏🏾
I don't know if it's just me, but I find it entertaining that while King's Cross station does not actually have a Platform 9 3/4, it does have a Platform 0 (zero).
Jaakko, platform 0 is only a recent innovation. For a century and a half, platforms 1 to 8 were under the trainshed. But you are right, the new platform should be 1, the existing 1-8 should be 2-9, the existing platform 9 should be 9 3/4.
One can’t help but love how convoluted and complex are the histories- and alleged histories- of myriad objects of intrigue one encounters in so many things about the capital. Your summation regarding the matter of the camera obscura I wholly agree is probably a case of folks getting their tall thin structures with small windows mixed up, and thereafter a thick weave of ‘facts’ being created about them which mark out distinctly different patterns! 😄 As a youngster, just found it a bit funny (being a strange boy) how such a ramshackle, seedy place could attract such a seemingly regal title. It’s worth remembering there is serious money just figuratively round the corner, so it wasn’t unusual to see scenes such I saw one day waiting to cross the Pentonville Road: on the opposite side was a young private school chap complete with cap and lined blazer, standing with well to do mother. Alongside the poor chap was a rather ‘experienced’ lady of questionable repute who, whilst waiting for the lights to change, got her equally well battle worn companion to hold her can of lager while she reached into her top and had a good rummage around to adjust her left breast. The kid’s face was a picture, though the mother was oblivious 🤷🏻♂️ The area is fascinating though, albeit for not the most desirable reasons. Indeed, I guess this was one of the reasons the railways came here: no one gave a toss about clearing the hoi-polloi and I guess the landlords were happy to get any money they could 🤔 Glad that statue got removed though. Not to be harsh, but it did look a bit crap 🙄 Great stuff as ever sir 🍀🍻👍
I've looked up 'Maber' as seen in massive letters on the building behind the monument in the coloured print. Seems a John Maber had the license for the Maidenhead Hotel in the 1830's, and that building was on the site of what is now the McDonalds. If is this is right it means the monument entrance faced up Euston Road and the statue was facing SW.
The King's Cross area was awful in the 1980s !! l worked for British Rail and if due to some mis fortune l had forgotten my sandwiches and wanted Fish and Chips ( the station refreshments were awful in those days, Travellers fare and all that ) l had to leave the ( imagined ?) safety of the station and make it across the street to the other side of the road ,to the nearest Fish and chip shop !! By Christ it was like running the Gauntlet , accosted by Prostitutes , hassled by drug dealers and all and sundry !! " No l don't want to buy your watch , British Rail do them free !". Thank god in later years they installed a sandwich machine and cake dispenser in the Traincrew mess room !
I've been following the news at home and abroad these last few weeks and - frankly - it sucks. I'm finding your odd enthusiasm for railway stations a thoroughly pleasant diversion. Thank you.
With the advent of the new Monarch, perhaps they could gentrify the place by setting what was the oyster bar below the lighthouse up as a seller of crabs, lobsters and other delicacies. Given Royal patronage, they could then call it King's Crustacean.
I remember many a night in the late 90s walking up York Way from Kings Cross to go to the nightclubs that were up there, all alone in the middle of seemingly nowhere. One venue was the infamous Bagley's and there was a more up market club called The Cross there. Think in the last months of that site existing (before they tore it down and made it what it is today - St Martins College and the Granary area) there was a festival held in the old clubs. Think it was called Cross Keys and was probably around 2001/02/03 ish. Those walks up York Way always provided a very random interaction with the locals.
St Georges' Cross might have got muddled with St George's Circus near Elephant ( worth a vid on its own too ). Boadicea Cross would have never had agreement as to its spelling
This reminds me of Peter Ackroyd's theory that the spirit of each of London's busiest areas never really changes despite fluctuations in their market value.
The lighthouse is, of course, there to guide ships attempting to navigation the treacherous waters of Gray's Inn Road. By the way, did you know that Euston Road was built as part of a by-pass, opened in 1756, to take coach traffic from Paddington to Islington without slogging through London's western suburbs? Oh, you did.
"Britain's most hated monarch" is an especially high bar when you consider that it places him _above_ the one whose head they chopped off on the "how much hated" scale.
Although Charles I was mainly hated by Cromwell and a small group of the Army and Parliament. And after he was beheaded, he became considered a martyr, especially as the Puritans and Army gradually alienated much of the general population, so he was more popular in death than in life.
If you want another take on KGIV read The King's Jaunt by John Prebble. This covers his visit to Edinburgh in August 1822. It is very amusing, but without it Scotland wouldn't have benefitted from the Royal Patronage it has enjoyed since. PS Edinburgh has a camera obscura at the top of the Royal Mile
I got very excited by the picture at 7:14. It looked like shuttering on the right hand side. It's as if the tunnel for the Metropolitan Railway was being dug. Could King's Cross monument have been demolished to make way for the railway??? No. But it does raise the question how did the Metropolitan Line manage to tunnel under the Scala/King's Cross Cinema that is pictured behind the monument. It didn't. The Scala, built at the beginning of the C20th only looks like that building, albeit a lot taller. How do you avoid spending your life down all these rabbit holes???
If I remember correctly, nearly all the over-the-top gold furniture and shizz you see in pictures of Buckingham Palace and the other Royal residences was bought by George IV. No taste and no impulse control. 😆
Historians have tried to locate the site of Boudicca’s last battle based on Roman accounts (written long after the event) and while a few contenders have been postulated none are near London. Similarly, in Epping forest near Loughton is ambesbury banks, remains of an Iron Age hill fort, this too is associated with Boudicca by local legend, indeed it’s said to be haunted by her ghost and that of her two daughters, again there’s no evidence for it.
There was always an ugly side to King’s Cross. Poverty and morality always struggle to maintain a faithful partnership. And yet it had immeasurable soul. Watch what Kenneth Williams had to say about the place. Every hungry mouth had a story to tell. Gentrification has brought beauty and edged out vice and crime further afield. And yet… and yet, looking at those gorgeous empty luxurious apartments that only the few can afford to live in, I wonder if all they’ve really built is just a multitude of George IV statues, doomed to crumble down as the faithful clocks around inevitably click towards an unplanned conclusion.
Loved the video. I can think of other places that have been renamed: Waterloo, Trafalgar Square, Crystal Palace, White City etc Perhaps this could be an interesting series Jago
Golly, how bad must the name of Waterloo's area have been if they changed it from whatever it was into a battleground? Wasn't that exactly the label Battlebridge was trying to get rid of?
The 'docks' for the Regent's Canal, just to the East of King's Cross station is still named Battlebridge Basin and is usually packed with narrow-boats. It's behind the Guardian offices at Kings Place and is surrounded by old warehouses that have mainly been converted into homes and offices. It's another of those 'tucked away' places.
This story reminds me of an old joke: "How do you make a King cross?... ... ... ...Tread on his feet." :D I did say it was on old joke. I'll see myself out now.
There! I always wondered why a King would be cross. It has been a horrid area. They wanted to bin St Pancras, too. Now we have Betjeman there. And not that ghastly 'temporary' front to Kings Cross.
In the demolition sketch at 7:15, behind the police station, there is a building with a cupola, which would have probably been replaced in 1875, as you surmised in your previous video. Perhaps the lighthouse paid homage to the cupola. You also showed a broadly similar cupola on the Scala cinema in the background, but that only dates back to 1920. However, the curved 4 storied terraced building on Gray's Inn Road, shown on the right in the demolition sketch, is extant 192 years later!
yes in the mid to late 1990's when I was working Intercity trains into St Pancras, the area outside the station towards Kings Cross was pretty sleazy. I used to go to an ATM on the outside of the Post Office which used to face Kings Cross Station and used to have to be very careful to ensure no one was looking over my shoulder when I took money out. The front of Kings Cross station was very much a male prostitutes meat rack ( seemingly having taken over from Piccadilly Circus Tube Station.) all rather nasty and unpleasant.
I bet that king statue bore an uncanny likeness to Rowan Atkinson. :) Very neat to find out the history of the area both before and after the redevelopment/renaming, as well as the station in part. Thank you, Jago!
I like to think it would have been an uncanny likeness of Hugh Laurie, who played the Prince Regent (as he was before he became George IV) in Rowan Atkinson's Blackadder The Third
@@nicfripp4159 It sounds like you're not too familiar with the Blackadder programme, but watch the final episode of the third series to find out what he is referring to.
Stephen Geary was also the man responsible for establishing Highgate cemetery. An earlier idea of his was a massive, pyramidal 'multi storey grave park' - an enormous Egyptian pyramids catacomb intended to loom high over London from the northern heights. Unfortunately, it was rejected. That would make a good Jago video.
There were once plans for a airport at King’s Cross to built above the station and also above St. Pancras (now St. Pancras International) station as what Jay Foreman had done a video about having a airport at King’s Cross St. Pancras in Central London. But that never happened and probably will never happen as St. Pancras International now has Eurostar. Since Eurostar moved from Waterloo International in 2007. But I totally agree with you that how King’s Cross is called King’s Cross and the station is on the East Coast Main Line. I quite like how both King’s Cross railway station and St. Pancras International railway station now looks. And Network Rail have spend £millions or even £Billions on re-modernisation and refurbishment at both terminus stations as they are next door to each other.
Thank you for another interesting film. Your shots also reveal how stunning Kings Cross station looks with sunlight flooding through its roof and with the entrance carbuncle now gone; great stuff!
There's a statue of Geo IV in Edinburgh, in George St. Sir Walter Scott engineered his visit in 1824, and got him to wear tartan and so it was legalised again. Scott also engineered the rediscovery of the Scottish Crown Jewels. William IV came after Geo IV and wasn't any better apparently.
William IV is an interesting king - he had his ups and downs, notably around the Reform Bill of 1832, but on the whole did rather better than George IV. He was certainly much less extravagant. He was the oldest monarch to ascend the British throne (at 64) ... until a month ago!
" No Support To The Poor and The Cost Of Bread Was On The Rise." Hell, isnt one glad to live in 2022. At least the present leader is warmly loved and has great feelings of affection from the close friends whose job it is to suck up to them, maybe its a good time to build that memorial now, using modern pre-stressed trusses should work
"A useless folly topped with a bad statue of an unpopular king that got in the way" seemed to be a perfect representative representation of G4. Sooo, success?
I don't go down to London often but when I do i arrive into King's Cross. I have to say that even several years on it's still refreshing to see the station without that abysmal bolt-on concourse on the front.
The biggest question is... when you say "the larger question is..." at 0.41... what startles the fella so much at what he's staring at that he pulls his hands apart to drop the offending item to the ground?? A note saying Jago's watching? The answer to 'what is life about anyway?', 'Go to the darkened room?'
The weird part about the popularity of camera obscurae isn't the primitive tech, it's that the view is right there to see with your eyes if you'd just step out of the dark room.
I suppose it could be because it was at the junction of Caledonian road going north (possibly not the Great North Road) and the East West Road linking Regents Park and the Tower. Perhaps suggestive James VI (or 1st depending on your locale) coming down from Scotland to take up residence in London (at the aforementioned Tower). At that position he could reasonably choose to go North (back to Scotland) or West to other parts of England. Just a thought.
Great video about an area I thought I knew well. Apropos of nothing, the spelling of ‘honor’ on the statue interested me - it is what we now think of as the North American spelling. I’m curious when we added the ‘u’ having always believed the Americans dropped it.
I live in Somerset. I have been to London twice, once on a school trip. All the main boroughs are famous and like ways many of the streets. Unlike almost all other countries England or perhaps Britain is dominated by one city. I would not like to live there and the more recent visit as an adult to London I was amazed how few people who’s first language is English there were
I'd heard the story of Budica being buried in the Cambridge shed at Kings Cross, but not connected it to Harry Potter. D'oh. I'd often wonderewd why JKR chose that bit of the station rather than "the nice bit" with platforms 1-8 (before they built the big Cow Parley atrium and made the whole thing seem more integrated).
![ลองสั่งของจากแอพ temu ถูกจริงหรอ?? ( part : 1/2 ) [โกงไหมครับ ep.89 ] | DOM](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RTcZSQTiDZw/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm quite positive, that a subscription to a statue of Jago Hazzard, at Jago's Cross, would be much more popular....😉
There is one but it’s invisible.
Wouldn’t we need to know what he looks like for that?
@@TheFrogfather1 He looks very like a small lighthouse. Apparently.
An excellent idea! Please let me know where to send my donation! 😄
He's on the fourth plinth right now.
When I first heard the name King's Cross (I was but a child), I never thought about who the King was. I just wondered what had happened to make said king so angry.
Does anyone else remember learning a poem at primary school (c. 1960) that began: 'King's cross - what shall we do?' There was a line: 'The court is shaking in its shoe' but I can't remember any more of it.
@@davidkimmins8781 The King Is Cross
King's Cross!
What shall we do?
His purple robe
Is rent in two!
Out of his crown
He's thrown his sceptre
Into the Thames!
The court is shaking
In its shoes
King's Cross!
What shall we do?
Leave him alone
For a minute or two.
Fun fact: Until pretty recently, Kings Cross in Sydney was the red light district, and thus also of questionable reputation for some. My parents would translate the name into Dutch, which uses the same word for 'cross' as 'crotch'. Given what you've said about old George, perhaps Kings Crotch would be appropriate, especially since it's right next to St Pancreas. 😉 (Yes, yes, I know…)
The same for this Kings Cross
An Aussie friend used to do serious drugs there when he was a punk in the 80's.
He came here (dual passport), became a bhuddist monk and cleaned up.
I mean, compaared to the UK'S Kings Cross the area is still somewhat seedy at night, especially since its still littered with clubs, albiet far less then in it's most infamous peak of the 1970s
There's some great TV episodes that were ACTUALLY shot in Sydney's Kings Cross, including Heartbreak High (S1E29, featuring an 11-y/o girl who runs away from home - again, they filmed the scenes with her amidst the actual bustling street life in 1994!) and Underbelly season 3 (which is kind of a condensed history of the area).
And if you want to know what Kings Cross is in Dutch; well it's "Koningskruis". But that sounds more like a valor of honor and translates better as "Royal cross". Just say "kruis van de koning" and you'll definitely get some chuckles.
🤣🤣🤣
Gaudy Plinth had a top 30 hit in the 1970s
And they once supported prog legends Wonky Statue on tour
switching from modern footage to vintage engraving of exactly the same view - at 0:54 - was very well done, sir
Apart from the canal itself, is there 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 there to connect the two images?
@@2H80vids not that I can see. But I wouldn't put it past Jago.
To paraphrase Douglas Adams, 1980s King's Cross in the small hours was a place where you could readily buy sex from a prostitute, hard drugs from a dealer, or (God help you) a kebab from a street vendor.
Hey, if they could find Richard III under a car park in Leicester, why not find Boudica outside an underground station?
Here we are with Jago Hazzard as he brings us information that most of us have never heard of .
Imagine a video of Jay Foreman and Jago Hazzard together.
This can be an excellent video !
I think Jay's sourced footage from Jago a few times, and fair enough since it's always top quality B-roll.
...and with a cameo appearance of Geoff Marshall
Jago might have been one of Jay’s videos but we would never know!
@@MrGreatplum I was hoping it would have been Jago playing Yerkes in Jay's latest vid. But even if it was, how would we know?
@@webchimp - that would have been perfect!
As a child growing up in the 1970s I recall the station was a popular haunt for 'ladies of negotiable affections' to peddle their trade. An awkward conversation for my father trying to explain what was going on as we waited for our train!
Oh how times have changed, for the better I may add.
It was still like that up until at least the early 2000s. Grim area.
“Negotiable affections”, I love it
I was on the way to a conference oop north and had to get a train very early in the morning. I arrived at 6am at KX and as I was about to enter the station I was waylaid by an elderly female, in her 70s, who asked me to help her cross the road to the south of the station. Boy scout that I am I helped her across the road. When we got to the other side she asked me 'business?' Needless to say I declined her offer.
The conference went well. But boy in the 80s was KX sleazy
“Women of negotiable affection”. Love the Pratchett reference. It’s a magnificent phrase that should be used more often.
Ahh, that answers the question of the King, but who's Pancreas was it?
* runs *
Some unknown saint I guess...
See Jago's vid on that
I always thought that King's Cross was one of the Eleanor crosses, like Charing Cross. The truth is rather disappointing.
I'm 56 and can remember King's Cross as being full of ne'er-do-wells trying to sell tourists seeking hash walnuts wrapped in silver foil. (pre Cling Film days!).
I was, for obvious reasons, reading about past royal funerals and I think it was said that no one attended George IV's funeral who didn't have to.
Can i just say that I've recently discovered your channel and I'm literally obsessed. Like, i mean, LITERALLY obsessed. Your videos are so intriguing and I love your sense of humour. Please never stop 🙏🏾
I don't know if it's just me, but I find it entertaining that while King's Cross station does not actually have a Platform 9 3/4, it does have a Platform 0 (zero).
🙂
...And now I'll have to go watch Geoff Marshall and Matt Parker's "Platform Zero: We Stop at Nothing" videos again
Jaakko,
platform 0 is only a recent innovation. For a century and a half, platforms 1 to 8 were under the trainshed.
But you are right, the new platform should be 1, the existing 1-8 should be 2-9, the existing platform 9 should be 9 3/4.
Finally series 3 of Blackadder and Hugh Laurie's portrayal of King George makes sense...thanks to this video!
One can’t help but love how convoluted and complex are the histories- and alleged histories- of myriad objects of intrigue one encounters in so many things about the capital. Your summation regarding the matter of the camera obscura I wholly agree is probably a case of folks getting their tall thin structures with small windows mixed up, and thereafter a thick weave of ‘facts’ being created about them which mark out distinctly different patterns! 😄 As a youngster, just found it a bit funny (being a strange boy) how such a ramshackle, seedy place could attract such a seemingly regal title. It’s worth remembering there is serious money just figuratively round the corner, so it wasn’t unusual to see scenes such I saw one day waiting to cross the Pentonville Road: on the opposite side was a young private school chap complete with cap and lined blazer, standing with well to do mother. Alongside the poor chap was a rather ‘experienced’ lady of questionable repute who, whilst waiting for the lights to change, got her equally well battle worn companion to hold her can of lager while she reached into her top and had a good rummage around to adjust her left breast. The kid’s face was a picture, though the mother was oblivious 🤷🏻♂️
The area is fascinating though, albeit for not the most desirable reasons. Indeed, I guess this was one of the reasons the railways came here: no one gave a toss about clearing the hoi-polloi and I guess the landlords were happy to get any money they could 🤔
Glad that statue got removed though. Not to be harsh, but it did look a bit crap 🙄
Great stuff as ever sir 🍀🍻👍
I knew that there had been a statue of George IV there, but had thought that it was the statue that gave King's Cross it's name.
I've looked up 'Maber' as seen in massive letters on the building behind the monument in the coloured print. Seems a John Maber had the license for the Maidenhead Hotel in the 1830's, and that building was on the site of what is now the McDonalds. If is this is right it means the monument entrance faced up Euston Road and the statue was facing SW.
The King's Cross area was awful in the 1980s !! l worked for British Rail and if due to some mis fortune l had forgotten my sandwiches and wanted Fish and Chips ( the station refreshments were awful in those days, Travellers fare and all that ) l had to leave the ( imagined ?) safety of the station and make it across the street to the other side of the road ,to the nearest Fish and chip shop !! By Christ it was like running the Gauntlet , accosted by Prostitutes , hassled by drug dealers and all and sundry !! " No l don't want to buy your watch , British Rail do them free !". Thank god in later years they installed a sandwich machine and cake dispenser in the Traincrew mess room !
Maxpax
I've been following the news at home and abroad these last few weeks and - frankly - it sucks. I'm finding your odd enthusiasm for railway stations a thoroughly pleasant diversion. Thank you.
I must admit that I find the present state of the world quite stressful, so making these videos is similarly a welcome distraction.
With the advent of the new Monarch, perhaps they could gentrify the place by setting what was the oyster bar below the lighthouse up as a seller of crabs, lobsters and other delicacies. Given Royal patronage, they could then call it King's Crustacean.
I salute you, Sir
I remember many a night in the late 90s walking up York Way from Kings Cross to go to the nightclubs that were up there, all alone in the middle of seemingly nowhere. One venue was the infamous Bagley's and there was a more up market club called The Cross there. Think in the last months of that site existing (before they tore it down and made it what it is today - St Martins College and the Granary area) there was a festival held in the old clubs. Think it was called Cross Keys and was probably around 2001/02/03 ish.
Those walks up York Way always provided a very random interaction with the locals.
St Georges' Cross might have got muddled with St George's Circus near Elephant ( worth a vid on its own too ). Boadicea Cross would have never had agreement as to its spelling
This reminds me of Peter Ackroyd's theory that the spirit of each of London's busiest areas never really changes despite fluctuations in their market value.
I don't think so. Clearances over time has driven out the original poor and working classes.
@@eattherich9215 They'll be back....
@@apolloc.vermouth5672: only when this experiment called capitalism finally collapses and we are all fighting each other for diminishing resources.
The lighthouse is, of course, there to guide ships attempting to navigation the treacherous waters of Gray's Inn Road. By the way, did you know that Euston Road was built as part of a by-pass, opened in 1756, to take coach traffic from Paddington to Islington without slogging through London's western suburbs? Oh, you did.
0:54 min = "It was a place where rubbish was dumped"
0:40 min = Say no more (bottom left side of screen)
'0:40 min = Say no more (bottom left side of screen)'. You will have to since I don't know what you mean.
This chap appears in quite a few of Mr. Hazzard's videos. I wondered how many others had spotted this.
"Britain's most hated monarch" is an especially high bar when you consider that it places him _above_ the one whose head they chopped off on the "how much hated" scale.
Although Charles I was mainly hated by Cromwell and a small group of the Army and Parliament. And after he was beheaded, he became considered a martyr, especially as the Puritans and Army gradually alienated much of the general population, so he was more popular in death than in life.
Very interesting as usual. There’s a Kings Cross in Sydney, also known as being an area that’s kind of dodgy.
Kings cross London in the 70 s used to be dodgy
@@xr6lad Gilding lilies is trying to improve something already very beautiful. I think you mean ‘let’s not polish a…’ well let’s leave it there.
If you want another take on KGIV read The King's Jaunt by John Prebble. This covers his visit to Edinburgh in August 1822. It is very amusing, but without it Scotland wouldn't have benefitted from the Royal Patronage it has enjoyed since. PS Edinburgh has a camera obscura at the top of the Royal Mile
I got very excited by the picture at 7:14. It looked like shuttering on the right hand side. It's as if the tunnel for the Metropolitan Railway was being dug. Could King's Cross monument have been demolished to make way for the railway??? No. But it does raise the question how did the Metropolitan Line manage to tunnel under the Scala/King's Cross Cinema that is pictured behind the monument. It didn't. The Scala, built at the beginning of the C20th only looks like that building, albeit a lot taller.
How do you avoid spending your life down all these rabbit holes???
If I remember correctly, nearly all the over-the-top gold furniture and shizz you see in pictures of Buckingham Palace and the other Royal residences was bought by George IV. No taste and no impulse control. 😆
Historians have tried to locate the site of Boudicca’s last battle based on Roman accounts (written long after the event) and while a few contenders have been postulated none are near London. Similarly, in Epping forest near Loughton is ambesbury banks, remains of an Iron Age hill fort, this too is associated with Boudicca by local legend, indeed it’s said to be haunted by her ghost and that of her two daughters, again there’s no evidence for it.
I did used to wonder why it was called that - & now I know - many thanks for sharing!!! 🙂🚂🚂🚂
There was always an ugly side to King’s Cross. Poverty and morality always struggle to maintain a faithful partnership. And yet it had immeasurable soul. Watch what Kenneth Williams had to say about the place. Every hungry mouth had a story to tell. Gentrification has brought beauty and edged out vice and crime further afield. And yet… and yet, looking at those gorgeous empty luxurious apartments that only the few can afford to live in, I wonder if all they’ve really built is just a multitude of George IV statues, doomed to crumble down as the faithful clocks around inevitably click towards an unplanned conclusion.
Did it really only cost £25? I know it's not exactly the Albert Memorial but it still seems a tiny amount.
Loved the video. I can think of other places that have been renamed:
Waterloo, Trafalgar Square, Crystal Palace, White City etc
Perhaps this could be an interesting series Jago
Golly, how bad must the name of Waterloo's area have been if they changed it from whatever it was into a battleground? Wasn't that exactly the label Battlebridge was trying to get rid of?
@@Eddyspeeder Ah yes, but 'we' won at Waterloo! Also, no one was claiming that the battle of Waterloo was actually fought in SE1.
@@davidkimmins8781 I thought that as a kid, which really confused my Napoleonic Wars history until GCSEs!
@@Eddyspeeder didn't Jago do a video on that recently and said the precise area didn't really have a name, it was generically "Lambeth."
did you know the modern roof of the station forecourt; is modelled on a giant crab shell, and that is why its called King Crus-tation
The 'docks' for the Regent's Canal, just to the East of King's Cross station is still named Battlebridge Basin and is usually packed with narrow-boats. It's behind the Guardian offices at Kings Place and is surrounded by old warehouses that have mainly been converted into homes and offices. It's another of those 'tucked away' places.
This story reminds me of an old joke:
"How do you make a King cross?...
...
...
...Tread on his feet." :D
I did say it was on old joke. I'll see myself out now.
Or give him a leaky pen.
(Off to The Tower . . .)
"Rather gaudy and tasteless" 6:10; so, in fact, a good likeness.
There! I always wondered why a King would be cross.
It has been a horrid area. They wanted to bin St Pancras, too. Now we have Betjeman there. And not that ghastly 'temporary' front to Kings Cross.
In the demolition sketch at 7:15, behind the police station, there is a building with a cupola, which would have probably been replaced in 1875, as you surmised in your previous video. Perhaps the lighthouse paid homage to the cupola.
You also showed a broadly similar cupola on the Scala cinema in the background, but that only dates back to 1920. However, the curved 4 storied terraced building on Gray's Inn Road, shown on the right in the demolition sketch, is extant 192 years later!
La Scala cinema . A great thing
Thanks for that education Sir, relax with best wishes upon this Sunday in early October.
I love when a Jago video has published. It's like a gong to finish work!
yes in the mid to late 1990's when I was working Intercity trains into St Pancras, the area outside the station towards Kings Cross was pretty sleazy. I used to go to an ATM on the outside of the Post Office which used to face Kings Cross Station and used to have to be very careful to ensure no one was looking over my shoulder when I took money out. The front of Kings Cross station was very much a male prostitutes meat rack ( seemingly having taken over from Piccadilly Circus Tube Station.) all rather nasty and unpleasant.
I bet that king statue bore an uncanny likeness to Rowan Atkinson. :)
Very neat to find out the history of the area both before and after the redevelopment/renaming, as well as the station in part. Thank you, Jago!
I like to think it would have been an uncanny likeness of Hugh Laurie, who played the Prince Regent (as he was before he became George IV) in Rowan Atkinson's Blackadder The Third
@@nicfripp4159 but if you recall the unfortunate events of the final episode...
@@spookydirt Oops! Blame a faulty memory - I meant Blackadder The Third, of course! I must remember to engage brain before publishing...
@@nicfripp4159 It sounds like you're not too familiar with the Blackadder programme, but watch the final episode of the third series to find out what he is referring to.
@@nicfripp4159 I thought Hugh was playing George III incorrectly called the prince regent and de-aged considering how mad he was
Stephen Geary was also the man responsible for establishing Highgate cemetery.
An earlier idea of his was a massive, pyramidal 'multi storey grave park' - an enormous Egyptian pyramids catacomb intended to loom high over London from the northern heights. Unfortunately, it was rejected.
That would make a good Jago video.
Thanks Jago! How about a story on the worst public sculptures in London, I nominate Maggi Hambling's Oscar Wilde for starters.
Sounds like Stephen Geary should have gone further back on the drawing board and picked perhaps another king to dedicate a monument to.
I always thought it was something mundane like a crossroads that a king had passed or something… great bit of history, Jago!
Or an honourary medal he'd been awarded.
Huh, I read the title too quickly and thought it read, "Who was Cross at King's Cross." A video I would watch, at any rate.
Me, when my train is cancelled.
@@JagoHazzard I see you are a fellow GTR commuter then :P
Hey, you got a litho showing an omnibus, great , they might even catch on
There were once plans for a airport at King’s Cross to built above the station and also above St. Pancras (now St. Pancras International) station as what Jay Foreman had done a video about having a airport at King’s Cross St. Pancras in Central London.
But that never happened and probably will never happen as St. Pancras International now has Eurostar. Since Eurostar moved from Waterloo International in 2007. But I totally agree with you that how King’s Cross is called King’s Cross and the station is on the East Coast Main Line. I quite like how both King’s Cross railway station and St. Pancras International railway station now looks.
And Network Rail have spend £millions or even £Billions on re-modernisation and refurbishment at both terminus stations as they are next door to each other.
Whatever the lighthouse was originally for, it does stop the trains running aground at night.
Of course they passed on a badass name like Boudicca's Cross.
Thank you for another interesting film. Your shots also reveal how stunning Kings Cross station looks with sunlight flooding through its roof and with the entrance carbuncle now gone; great stuff!
There's a statue of Geo IV in Edinburgh, in George St. Sir Walter Scott engineered his visit in 1824, and got him to wear tartan and so it was legalised again. Scott also engineered the rediscovery of the Scottish Crown Jewels.
William IV came after Geo IV and wasn't any better apparently.
Oops. It was 1822.
William IV is an interesting king - he had his ups and downs, notably around the Reform Bill of 1832, but on the whole did rather better than George IV. He was certainly much less extravagant. He was the oldest monarch to ascend the British throne (at 64) ... until a month ago!
Boodicker? and just as my indignation rose, Boadicea. Jago, thanks for the chuckle, please don't ever change.
I wonder why he didn't take the opportunity of the monarch's demise to shift the subject to William IV
" No Support To The Poor and The Cost Of Bread Was On The Rise." Hell, isnt one glad to live in 2022. At least the present leader is warmly loved and has great feelings of affection from the close friends whose job it is to suck up to them, maybe its a good time to build that memorial now, using modern pre-stressed trusses should work
Interesting that there's a Kings Cross in Sydney that has a similar reputation.
"...wouldn't date when the next monarch came around." Well that worked for about 17 years then.
I don't know where you find these little gems, but once again, i have been both amused and enlightened; not to mention educated. Next!
Very interesting story, now I know why it's called Kings Cross. Quite a tame area all the times I've been there lol.
"A useless folly topped with a bad statue of an unpopular king that got in the way" seemed to be a perfect representative representation of G4. Sooo, success?
The statue actually only cost £5, but a certain Edmund Blackadder skimmed off the other £20 in fees. 😉
So, Boudicca is buried under platform 9 3/4? Where Harry Potter catches his train?
I often wondered why it was called King's Cross.
And know I know.
Thanks Jago!! :D
Like Estate agents did in the 80s with St Reatham -Stretham, Claam- Clapham, etc 🙄
went to see Guillemots at Scala. it weren't too dodgy. Gervais lived there, he tells a great anecdote about doing a wee in the kitchen sink
Call it Butler's Cross and put a statue of Stephen Fry's Wellington smacking around Hugh Laurie. Much more popular statue.
I watched this in two sittings, but I’m confused because I thought you would answer why the light house was there
I don't go down to London often but when I do i arrive into King's Cross. I have to say that even several years on it's still refreshing to see the station without that abysmal bolt-on concourse on the front.
Well good evening indeed, I did enjoy a much needed chuckle at this episode after a toilsome day!
Fascinating Jago, well done, always a pleasure and BS free too which is a real bonus.
The biggest question is... when you say "the larger question is..." at 0.41... what startles the fella so much at what he's staring at that he pulls his hands apart to drop the offending item to the ground?? A note saying Jago's watching? The answer to 'what is life about anyway?', 'Go to the darkened room?'
The weird part about the popularity of camera obscurae isn't the primitive tech, it's that the view is right there to see with your eyes if you'd just step out of the dark room.
Well done for the correct plural!
@@AtheistOrphan Well, half correct.
It was designed to allow people to draw scenes by tracing the projected image to create a photographic style drawing - the forerunner of the camera.
Ah, rebranding to improve a reputation, no one would fall for that, surely? WindscaleSellafield . . .
That Colston statue in Bristol was paid for by public subscription too though they struggled to raise the funds. Gone as well.
Interesting! Had the station been built a decade later it might have been called Queens Cross
If the statue and monument were considered gaudy and tasteless (6:10), that seems rather appropriate for George IV.
😄👍
So the cost of bread was on the rise, was it? I blame the yeast...
Brilliant sir, Brilliant!
Excellent, Mr H, and entirely up to your usual standard. With skills like that, you don't fancy becoming PM do you? Thanks, Simon T
I suppose it could be because it was at the junction of Caledonian road going north (possibly not the Great North Road) and the East West Road linking Regents Park and the Tower. Perhaps suggestive James VI (or 1st depending on your locale) coming down from Scotland to take up residence in London (at the aforementioned Tower). At that position he could reasonably choose to go North (back to Scotland) or West to other parts of England.
Just a thought.
If my memory serves me correctly, Sir Hiss said “King John [was] the worst [King of England]”
th-cam.com/video/R751wXEKIxw/w-d-xo.html
I wonder where the bits of plinth went, in those days as now faced stone and pillars were worth money so probably not just chucked away.
£25? Ironically that's the exact same amount that the Tories have managed to collect towards a statue of Boris Johnson.
Bit by tiny crumb. Jago reveals the whole history of London. Can't be much left to go now.
Great video about an area I thought I knew well. Apropos of nothing, the spelling of ‘honor’ on the statue interested me - it is what we now think of as the North American spelling. I’m curious when we added the ‘u’ having always believed the Americans dropped it.
Any chance you could cover the kings cross fire? Namely, body 115? My father narrowly missed dying there.
I think he’s already done a video on it.
Every time I hear "King's Cross Station", I hear "King's Crustacean"
Well he was a lecherous fellow, so crabs were a possibility.
To use your oyster card ?
@@highpath4776 ZINGGG!!! 😁😁
I'm sure the unpopular monument to George IV must have gotten decent avian patronage . . . .
Thank you very much for this dive into History!🙂👍
You've gotta admit, St. George's Cross is a bloody good pun.
I live in Somerset. I have been to London twice, once on a school trip. All the main boroughs are famous and like ways many of the streets. Unlike almost all other countries England or perhaps Britain is dominated by one city. I would not like to live there and the more recent visit as an adult to London I was amazed how few people who’s first language is English there were
I'd heard the story of Budica being buried in the Cambridge shed at Kings Cross, but not connected it to Harry Potter. D'oh. I'd often wonderewd why JKR chose that bit of the station rather than "the nice bit" with platforms 1-8 (before they built the big Cow Parley atrium and made the whole thing seem more integrated).
Cool video