I’ve put on a ‘bit’ of weight lately and have been told that consistently walking 10,000 steps a day helps weight loss and general health. I don’t know whether that’s true, but it gave me an incentive to get out and explore. I thought walking from the Barbican to King’s Cross should suffice and also give me some blog material, which it duly did.
The first place I paused was Charterhouse Square, home to the lovely Art Deco block of flats called Florin Court, forever destined to be associated with Hercule Poirot’s flat in ‘Whitehaven Mansions’ ..
It has been described as ‘a rare example of a surviving, unaltered Art Deco/Streamline Moderne residential building’ …
Built between 1935 and 1937, the building’s original residents were local businessmen, who often needed to be at Smithfield Market in the early morning. Most of the flats were therefore intended to be bedsits. But for some of the wealthier, permanent residents, there were several attractive amenities including: a restaurant, a cocktail bar, a squash court, and even a parking garage for twenty cars. Flats at the top even had small roof gardens, which are still used today.
The original ground floor lobby had the Charterhouse coat of arms embedded in the marble floor but this area is now carpeted …
The local public space opposite the flats was being prepared for an event …
The classic red phone box nearby has been converted into a ‘Little Free Library’ …
If you know anyone who keeps insisting that London is a ‘very dangerous place’ please refer them to this photograph …
Also on the Square is, of course, The Charterhouse after which it takes its name. The original stone arch and wooden gate, set into the chequered flint and stone wall, are remarkable survivors which have stood here since construction in 1405 …
You can read more about this fascinating institution in my At the Charterhouse blog.
Charterhouse Mews, an atmospheric cobbled alleyway. Notice the stone setts on the ground with solid lines for carriage wheels to run over more comfortably for their occupants. …
I’m pretty sure that the decorations around the alley entrance and the door to the house next door are made of Coade Stone …
You can read more about the entrepreneurial Eleanor Coade in the brilliant Look Up London blog which you will find here.
Smithfield meat market is still operating …
You can read more about the area in three of my blogs – Goodbye Smithfield Market, Smithfield Stories and A more cheerful wander around Smithfield. I have also written more specifically about the pubs in the area in this blog.
My next location was the mysteriously named Greenhill Rents …
You can read more about its name and history in the great Ian Visits blog.
It’s home to our favourite local restaurant, Trattoria Brutto …
Fantastic food with house Negronis for £5. Need I say more?
Cowcross Street was known as ‘Cow Cross’ until the end of the 18th century. You would think that Cow Cross got its name from cows crossing the street on their way to Smithfield market. But that wasn’t it at all. There used to be a large cross, like a big sign, set up where St John Street and Cowcross Street meet. This was the sign for the Smithfield Cow Market, which was a separate market from the main Smithfield Market which also traded in other livestock and horses. The cow market cross gave Cow Cross, and eventually Cowcross Street, their names. The street in 1870 …
Leading off the north side of the street is Peter’s Lane, named after the church which once stood nearby …
The Rookery is a boutique hotel. It was expanded in 1996/7 and a new brick tower was constructed. Artists Mark Merer and Lucy Glendenning cast several bulls’ and cows’ heads in glass-reinforced resin and placed them into the gables of the tower. It’s well worth strolling down the lane and having a look …
Peter’s Lane in 1867 …
Across the road back in Cowcross Street is Bouchon Racine, just voted the UK Restaurant of the Year …
If you manage to get a booking, see if you can get a table in the small terrace overlooking the street.
Farringdon Station moved to its current location on 23 December 1865 when the Metropolitan Railway opened an extension to Moorgate. It was renamed Farringdon & High Holborn on 26 January 1922 when the new building by the architect Charles Walter Clark facing Cowcross Street was opened, and its present name was adopted on 21 April 1936 …
From mid-1914, the Metropolitan Railway introduced its own version of the Underground roundel. This originally appeared as a blue station name plate across a red diamond and the diamond is still there, above the entrance …
The Zeppelin Building is a historic Victorian warehouse-style office space located at 59-61 Farringdon Road …
On September 8, 1915, the site was levelled by a German Zeppelin bombing. It was rebuilt two years later by John Phillips and a commemorative plaque recalls the event …
The building encloses an entrance to ‘The Drill Hall’ dated 1887 …
Designed by architect Alfred J. Hopkins, it was built between 1887 and 1888 for the War Office as the headquarters of the 2nd City of London Rifle Volunteer Corps. In 1908, the volunteer corps became the 6th (City of London) Battalion, London Regiment, also known as the City of London Rifles. At the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the battalion assembled and mobilised at the drill hall before departing for service on the Western Front. During the war, the building itself suffered damage in the 8 September Zeppelin raid …
During the mid-1930s, the City of London Rifles relocated as part of an anti-aircraft reorganisation, leaving the drill hall vacant. After the Second World War, the building became home to the 167th and 168th City of London Field Ambulance units of the Royal Army Medical Corps. It remained in military use until 1967, when another reorganisation led to its closure.
Today, much of the hall has been carefully restored …
An amusing warning sign that made me smile …
The Betsey Trotwood Pub …
Built in 1865 as The Butchers Arms, it was renamed in 1983 after the Charles Dickens character from David Copperfield. It was one of the first buildings constructed above the new Metropolitan Railway extension, sitting over tunnels for both the Underground and Thameslink lines. Some memorabilia from the pub website, ‘London’s only pub in the middle of the road’!
I reach the point where Farringdon Road seamlessly merges into King’s Cross Road.
Mount Pleasant Post Office has an important place in the history of postal services in the United Kingdom and its Mail Centre is one of Royal Mail’s largest and busiest sorting offices. For many years it has handled millions of letters and parcels, connecting people and businesses across the UK and around the world …
In 2017 Royal Mail sold off much of the site for redevelopment and I passed these new apartments on my walk …
If you need ventilation shafts on a development once linked to Royal Mail, what better than to make them look like pillar boxes …
The Union Tavern which dates from 1878 …
A face appears to emerge from the brickwork …
The sign reads:
THIS IS BAGNIGGE HOUSE NEARE THE PINDER A WAKEFEILDE 1680
The London historian Peter Jackson identified this tablet as the oldest piece of street advertising in the capital …
You can read more in the great London Inheritance blog website.
Having been captivated by the World Cup recently, I can’t help but think that the person represented in the tablet looks a lot like the brilliant Manchester City and Norway international footballer Erling Haaland …
Wacky signs in an optician’s window …
And by the door …
Redundant Police Station …
… and, next door, a redundant Courthouse …
The Victorians routinely built magistrates’ courts physically attached or immediately adjacent to police stations. This combined approach—often referred to as a “lock-up and justice room”—was an administrative strategy to ensure suspects could be held in the police cells overnight and marched directly into court the next morning without logistical complications.
Derby Lodge, in nearby Britannia Street, is a Grade II listed block of Victorian-era social housing. Originally built around 1865 by the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company, these six-storey philanthropic tenement buildings were designed to provide quality housing for working-class railway families …
I really enjoyed looking at these models on display at a local architects’ firm …
London is full of spooky little alleyways …
Finally my destination looms into view …
The St Pancras Station and Hotel. How extraordinary to think that there were once plans to demolish this building …
Looking at its design, it still seems strange that the King’s Cross Station building is actually older than the St Pancras one (1852 versus 1868) …
I was once told that the King’s Cross ‘Lighthouse’ was built by a retired sea captain to remind him of his career …
For its true history, do read this London Inheritance blog.
According to my Smartphone that was a walk of 9,800 steps, so now I’m perfectly justified in taking the Tube home (it must be at least 200 steps from Tube to flat!).
Out for a paddle with mum. The Barbican ducklings are growing up and thriving …
And now a different variety of quackers.
I spent the weekend in the lovely village of Chiseldon and, when going to buy a paper, I looked up and saw a thatched roof with a delightful decoration …
Initially there was a pigeon who looked like he wanted to join in …
And then proceeded to show no respect whatsoever …
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