London King's Cross railway station

The London King 's Cross station ( often written only briefly King's Cross Kings Cross without the apostrophe ) is one of the main railway stations of London. The terminus of the East Coast Main Line located in the London Borough of Camden, next to the St Pancras railway station. King's Cross is named after a monument to King George IV named. In the year 2011 there were 26.255 million passengers the station.

Function

The station is the terminus of railway lines from the North East of England and the East of Scotland. Sparx et al trains to Cambridge, York, Durham, Newcastle and Edinburgh. Below the station is the sprawling underground station King's Cross St. Pancras, where crossing six lines of the London Underground. About five minutes' walk away is the partly underground station King's Cross Thameslink.

Since the privatization of the UK rail network run from King's Cross railway companies mainly features the following:

East Coast: intercity services along the Eastern Main Line (East Coast Mainline )
First Capital Connect: Express trains to Cambridge and King's Lynn as well as commuter trains to North London, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Peterborough
Hull Trains: Direct express trains to Kingston upon Hull
Grand Central Railway: Fast Trains to Sunderland via York and Hartlepool (from September 2007)

History and reception building

King's Cross was planned as a terminus for the Great Northern Railway and built. The architect responsible was Lewis Cubitt, construction began in 1851 on the site of a former fever and smallpox hospital. The new station replaced an interim solution to the Maiden Lane, which opened on August 8, 1850. The main part of the building, which includes the tracks today from 1 to 8, was opened on 14 October 1852. West of the station building the railway company took her 1854 Great Northern Hotel in operation.

The arrangement of the tracks has been changed several times: At the beginning there were - as in the operation of large terminal stations at that time usual - only ever an arrival and departure track (now the area of the tracks 1 to 8), the tracks between them were as sidings and for converting used by locomotives. Because of the growing traffic, the station was constantly expanding. A second building with the tracks 9 to 11 was added. At the front of the station, a single-storey extension was built in 1972, has adjusted the listed facade of the main hall.

Renovation and expansion

In the years 2008 to 2013, the station for 547 million pounds has been completely refurbished and extended in 2007, after the adjacent St Pancras station to Euro Star terminal was expanded. The measure included a variety of measures:

The hall roof was repaired.
Side of the main hall, an additional track "0" next to platform 1 was applied also to create an alternative for track closures during construction.
In the main hall pedestrian bridges were built as a platform accesses or extended.
The Great Northern Hotel was renovated and is back as a luxury hotel in operation.
In the area between the Great Northern Hotel and the historic station building an underground ticket hall for the Metro Station King's Cross St. Pancras was built with new, barrier-free access platform,
And then also built the new, semi-circular main hall of the train. From it the platforms, the metro and the St Pancras Station on short routes are reachable. Through the London system of wickets is regulated so that the departing passengers reach the platforms on the upper floor of the new building and the new pedestrian bridges and leave the incoming the building at ground level over the cross- platform.

The station was renewed, in time for the Summer Olympics, opened on 19 March 2012. After the Games, the cultivation of 1972 was canceled and re-invest a representative station square, which brings the historic facade to bear again.

Simultaneously, the area north of King's Cross is being developed as a new urban district. This area between the railway tracks from King's Cross and St Pancras was dominated by brownfield sites as a former gasworks, the freight station, the railway depot and a channel port. Remain the most important historical buildings such as the gas boiler and the Güterhalle obtained incidentally a highly compressed high -rise development is provided. In November 2013, designed by Dan Pearson West Handyside Park was opened. In the design of Pearson draws on native plants and neophytes in the United Kingdom since the Industrial Revolution along the railway lines spread like asters and pastures, however, renounced on Japanese knotweed, which is a notifiable disease in the UK.

King's Cross in literature, film and music

In the novel series Harry Potter by JK Rowling is the main hall of the King's Cross railway starting point of the Hogwarts Express, leaving the boarding school with Harry. The train departs from the secret track from 9 ¾, which is hidden behind an invisible portal in a wall between the tracks 9 and 10. In reality, the tracks are 9 and 10 in an adjacent building, and there is no wall between them. 2001 Joanne Rowling admitted in an interview that she had confused when writing the first book King's Cross to Euston Station. When the books were filmed, turned to the train station scenes in the main hall, the tracks 4 and 5 were renumbered for this purpose for a short time in 9 and 10. In the last film was due to construction at the station during the filming of the final scene ( the time jump at the end of the novel ) is shown the Exterior of St Pancras railway station.

At the station a sign with the inscription was " Platform 9 ¾" mounted on the wall between platform 4 and 5. There is an installation in which the front part of a luggage trolley is fixed to the wall, as if the car is about to disappear in the wall. After several moves during construction it is located since 2012 in the new hall, on the right hand on the way to the train tracks 9, 10 and 11 ( Western Departures). There is also a Harry Potter shop.

The crime comedy The Ladykillers 1955 originated in King's Cross railway station and its vicinity. The exterior shots of the film show the state before the extensive transport and urban development construction work since the turn of the millennium.

In the Doctor Who novel, Transit King's Cross is a major transfer hubs of an interplanetary transport system, which is based on the London Underground.

The Pet Shop Boys released on their album Actually in 1987 a song called King's Cross. The music video for the song Rent, which also comes from the album Actually, was partly filmed in and around King's Cross station.

Main scene of action for Anthony Minghella's film Breaking and Entering - Burglary & Theft is next to the Kings Cross district of the construction site of the new Euro Star terminal St Pancras / Kings Cross.

The British indie - rock band The Holloways released the song King's Cross Cutie on the album So This Is Great Britain? (2006).

Spelling

The correct spelling of the station name is disputed. With or without the apostrophe, both variants are correct:

Kings Cross is the name of the surrounding area.
King's Cross is the "official" label in the train station and the metro station, it is also used on the network map of the London Underground ...
But ... Kings Cross is the "official" name in online timetables and is also used in other "official" railroad documents.
Since 2004, the railway infrastructure company Network Rail uses the name King's Cross.
On target electronic scoreboards at the stations, the name London Kings X is used.

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