King's Cross Station

King's Cross railway station is a major London railway terminus which takes its name from the King's Cross area of London, which itself was named after a monument to King George IV that was demolished in 1845.

It opened in 1852 as the London hub of the Great Northern Railway and terminus of the East Coast main line. It was built on the site of a fever and smallpox hospital under initial plans devised by George Turnbull, engineer for construction of the first 20 miles of the Great Northern Railway out of London, then completed to the design of Lewis Cubitt, whose brother William Cubitt designed the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition of 1851 and was also a consulting engineer to the Great Northern Railway.

The design is based on two arched train sheds, with a brick structure at the south end designed to reflect the main arches behind. It was inspired by the 180-metre long Moscow Riding Academy which had been built to great acclaim in 1825, which it handsomely exceeded at its final length of 246 metres.

Classic Trains

A number of famous trains have been associated with King's Cross, such as the Flying Scotsman overnight service to Edinburgh, and the Gresely A3 and later streamlined A4 Pacific steam locomotives, which handled express services from the 1930s until the early 1960s. The most famous of these was the Mallard, which still holds the world speed record for steam locomotives (set at 125.88 mph (202.58 km/h) on 3 July 1938).

Boudica

The area of King's Cross was previously a village known as Battle Bridge, which was an ancient crossing of the River Fleet. The name "Battle Bridge" is linked to tradition that this was the site of a major battle between the Romans and the British Iceni tribe led by Boudica, Britain's Warrior Queen. Boudica's legendary fame during the Victorian era, when Queen Victoria was portrayed as her namesake, restored a historical and cultural foundation to Britain.

With scarce historical evidence the site of the battle is disputed by modern historians. However Lewis Spence's 1937 book Boadicea – Warrior Queen of the Britons, went so far as to include a map showing the positions of the opposing armies.

According to folklore, Boudica could even be buried under one of the platforms at King's Cross. Platforms 8, 9 and 10 have been suggested as possible sites. There are also passages under the station that her ghost is reputed to haunt.

King's Cross Station in the Movies

Harry Potter

In reality, platforms 9 and 10 are in a separate building from the main station, and are actually separated by two intervening tracks. Rowling intended the location to be in the main part of the station, but she mis-remembered the platform numbering.

King's Cross now boasts a cast-iron "Platform 9¾" plaque, located in the new concourse building, which has become a major tourist attraction. Part of a luggage trolley has been installed below the sign: the near end of the trolley is visible, but the rest has 'disappeared' into the wall. 

When the films were made, the station scenes were filmed within the main station, with platforms 4 and 5 renumbered 9 and 10. In the film of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the exterior of St. Pancras station (next door) was used, since its Gothic façade was considered more impressive than the real King's Cross.

The station features in the epilogue of the final book and film in the series - Harry Potter and the Deathly Halllows, making it the final setting of the Harry Potter series.

The Ladykillers

The station, its surrounding streets and the railway approach feature prominently in the 1955 Ealing comedy film The Ladykillers. In the story, a gang robs a security van near the station and Mrs Wilberforce, an elderly widow in a house overlooking the railway, unwittingly assists them in moving the proceeds through the station. Members of the gang fall out with each other and one by one they all fall or are dropped into passing goods wagons.

Other Films and TV

In Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 film The 39 Steps the innocent hero has to flee pursuers in London by boarding the Flying Scotsman train to Scotland at King's Cross.

Scenes from the 1995 Bollywood film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ) were filmed at King's Cross.

King's Cross was extensively filmed in for the Pet Shop Boys' 1988 feature film It Couldn't Happen Here.

In children's television programmes featuring the puppet Roland Rat, Roland is said to live in the sewers beneath King's Cross. In Roland Rat: The Series this was realised as the high-tech "Ratcave", accessed from a hidden lift in a workmen's shelter.

King's Cross Station in Literature

• Howard's End by E.M. Forster.
• Doctor Who novel Transit, as one of the main hubs of an interplanetary transit system based on the London Underground.
• Some of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories stories describe Holmes and Watson travelling via King's Cross.
• In the Reverend W.V. Awdry's Thomas the Tank Engine series of books, Gordon, Duck and an engine from "the Other Railway" have a lengthy argument about the name of 'the London station' (apparently not realising that there is more than one railway station in London). Gordon says it's called King's Cross, but Duck insists that the name is Paddington (because he worked for the Great Western Railway) and the visiting engine believes it to be Euston.
• In Eva Ibbotson's children's book The Secretb of Platform 13, there is a door between worlds called a "Gump" under the fictitious and abandoned platform 13 at King's Cross.
• In Alan Moore's book The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century, the station and the local area feature as a centre for the magical forces at work within the text.

Other Cultural References

• The Pet Shop Boys released a song entitled "King's Cross" on the 1987 album Actually, later covered by Tracey Thorn opf Everything But the Girl. 
• In their 1987 music video "Rent", King's Cross is used extensively as a backdrop. The concourse is the meeting point for Chris Lowe of the Pet Shop Boys and Margi Clarke playing characters who are reunited in front of the departures and arrivals board. Parked outside in the taxi rank is the other Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant, playing Margi Clarke's taxi driver.