{"id":4459,"date":"2011-06-06T11:15:59","date_gmt":"2011-06-06T10:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/?p=4459"},"modified":"2011-06-05T22:56:25","modified_gmt":"2011-06-05T21:56:25","slug":"kings-cross-lighthouse-continues-to-rot-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/kings-cross-lighthouse-continues-to-rot-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Kings Cross Lighthouse continues to rot away"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kings<\/p>\n

Still empty, derelict and slowly rotting away is this remarkable building adjacent to Kings Cross railway station, known locally as the King’s Cross Lighthouse<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

It’s been lying empty for a very long time, and there’s still some debate as to what the Grade II listed building’s original function was.<\/p>\n

Here’s some snippets from an article I wrote in October 2007<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The story is that the building originally served as an oyster house – oysters being the fast food of the day – with eateries often being marked by a lighthouses, much like McDonalds (spit!) uses the familiar Golden Arches to catch the eye of hungry punters.<\/p>\n

Thing is, if the lighthouse motif was used as a commonly recognisable symbol for snack-seekers, how come no others survive?<\/p>\n

…<\/strong>In ‘Eccentric Britain’, by Benedict le Vay, the author comments about the structure: “Some claim it was once a helter-skelter tower but it would have been impossibly, and improbably, moved up there.<\/p>\n

Inspections of the interior, say Camden Council, show that it can’t have been a clocktower or a camera obscura. Obscurer are its origins indeed, and maybe it was a totally useless architectural flourish.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

Street level view. The shops have been closed for years on end.<\/p>\n

Back in early 2009,\u00a0Latitude Architects won planning permission from Camden Council for a \u00a313 million internal reconstruction of the building, with \u00a0developers UK Real Estate, Latitude and The London Planning Practice reported to be in negotiation with English Heritage and Camden Council.<\/p>\n

Sadly,\u00a0nothing\u00a0seems to have moved forward in the subsequent two years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

The tower’s condition gets worse every year and there seems to be no ongoing \u00a0effort to halt the\u00a0deterioration\u00a0of the structure.<\/p>\n

Quite how such a local landmark got in this state is anyone’s guess, but allowing it to carry on rotting away is nothing short of criminal.<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

View of the lighthouse from outside Kings Cross railway station.<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

Detail of the attractive architecture.<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

It’s been a long time\u00a0since\u00a0Jim served up a portion of chips.<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

Empty shops along Gray’s Inn Road.<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

The legendary Mole Jazz record store was located here before moving further up the road (to\u00a0number\u00a0311)\u00a0before\u00a0closing for good<\/a> in November 2005.<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

The old shop sign lives on!<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

This hand-painted sign for ‘Dress Wright’ looks very old.<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

Shop door detail.<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

Looking up to the lighthouse.<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

The ’01’ prefix of this ticket agent’s sign suggests that the business closed around 1990 when the dialling codes changed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

Pentonville Road view showing the fine architectural detail of the building.<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

Looking along Pentonville Road along to Kings Cross. To the right is the gothic tower of St Pancras railway station<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

The gothic spires of St Pancras in the distance.<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

The cupola roof looks to be\u00a0irreparably\u00a0damaged.<\/p>\n

\"Kings<\/p>\n

A last look at the derelict tower.<\/p>\n

More info:<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong> Feature on the ‘Oysterhouse Lighthouse’<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>Discuss the Lighthouse on our bulletin boards<\/a><\/p>\n

[Map location<\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Still empty, derelict and slowly rotting away is this remarkable building adjacent to Kings Cross railway station, known locally as the King’s Cross Lighthouse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[194,17,193],"tags":[199,69],"class_list":["post-4459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-london-features","category-photos","category-places","tag-architecture","tag-kings-cross"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/kings-cross-lighthouse-01.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQI7P-19V","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4459"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4463,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4459\/revisions\/4463"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.urban75.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}