St Pancras OLD church

St Pancras OLD church is just behind both St Pancras and Kings Cross stations in London. St Pancras is the most wonderful church and my family considered it to be "our" family church where many christenings, marriages and funerals within our family have been conducted over the years. The stairs of the church in the above photo are in most of the wedding photographs of so many family members. As I child I used to play in the gardens of the church as right at the back of the gardens there was a wonderful swing park. The swing park, now sadly no longer there, was just infront of the back wall over which were the tracks of the Midland railway tracks into St Pancras station. Now days there is a great amount of building work going on as St Pancras is going to be the London terminal for Eurostar. Back in the mid 1800's many of the graves in the gardens were taken up to make room for the new railway and sadly again now more graves have been removed to make way for Eurostar.

St Pancras OLD church is probably the oldest Christian church in England. There has been a place of worship here since around 315 AD. A few years back Camden Council renovated the gardens as they had become a complete mess. There are many famous people buried here too. Joseph Grimaldi the famous clown wass buried here in 1801. The poet Percy Shelly told Mary Wollstonecraft (the author of Frankenstien) that he loved her as they sat at the side of her mothers grave. Sir John Soane, the architect who designed the Bank of England, and his family are buried here in a big mausoleum that was erected in 1816. The design of this mausoleum was thought to have influenced the design of the K2 telephone box. This mausoleum and that of Karl Marx in Highgate cemetary are the only Grade 1 listed monuments in London. The Beatles even had photos taken in the grounds of this church to promote Hey Jude from The White Album. How's that for fame!!

To the left of the church and gardens is now St Pancras hospital. It was once the hospital for Tropical diseases. This has now been incorporated into the nearby University College Hospital that has a wonderful new hospital on Euston road. Just behind this hospital at the turn of the century there was a work house. After the workshouse was shut this building was turned into accomodation for the nurses who worked in the hospital. To the rear of the gardens is the Coroners office still in use today. When we were children we were terrified of going near that building for fear of seeing a dead body..... I dread to think what we must have heard to think it was such an awful place!

If you are ever in this part of London you really must make time to visit. There is so much to see and all within 20 mintues walk of each other: St Pancras station, the British library, the British museum, Regents Park. There are far too many attractions to mention but all equally worth a visit!