King’s Cross history

The area was originally called Broad Ford Bridge because there was a bridge here over the Fleet River. The name got corrupted to Battle Bridge and the legend was invented that Boadicea fought a great battle with the Romans there. In the 18th century it was a popular spa. The area took its modern name from a monument put up in 1836. It consisted of a 60 foot high statue of King George IV on top of an octagonal base, decorated with columns and statues of the four patron saints of Britain. The base was hollow and was used as a police station, then as a public house. The statue was so unpopular that it was taken down in 1842 and the public house was also demolished three years later. It was presumably called King’s “Cross” because it was built at the junction of Euston, Pentonville, St Pancras and Gray’s Inn Roads. It was used as a dump for ashes created by brick burning works in Gray’s Inn Road. The pile of ashes was so huge that when it was removed in 1826 it was widely believed the Russians had bought it to rebuild Moscow after Napoleon burnt it down. King’s Cross station was built in 1851-2 on the former site of the Smallpox Hospital.