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The area has seen a great deal of
development in recent years and visitors who remember Kings
Cross-St Pancras from days gone by will be surprised at
its transformation. Victorian canalside warehouses have
been restored to house new apartments, restaurants and bars
and crumbling industrial buildings have been swept away
to make way for new hi-tech offices, shops, art galleries
(including the cutting-edge Gagosian Gallery) and Kings
Place, a new concert hall that is home to the London Sinfonietta
and offers concerts and cultural events nightly. The area
also boasts three off-West End theatres; the Shaw Theatre,
Bloomsbury Theatre and The Place theatre.
The British Library is a 5 minute
walk away - treasures include Mozart scores, Beatles lyrics,
Shakespeare First Folio and Magna Carta (1215). You can
stroll to the British Museum in Bloomsbury in 20 mins (Egyptian
Mummies, Rosetta Stone, Elgin Marbles). Bloomsbury is also
home to the Charles Dickens Musuem, sited in the house where
he wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickelby.
Despite these local highlights,
the best reason for living in St Pancras is its proximity
to London's West End. You can walk to Covent Garden, Oxford
Street or Leicester Square in 30-40 mins or take a 10 min
bus or tube ride. This means that you spend more of your
holiday doing what you want to do, rather than commuting
in to central London each day on the trains or tube.
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You can visit world class tourist attractions such as
the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral,
Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, Buckingham
Palace, The Mall, Trafalgar Square, London Eye and the British
Museum.
Or you can go shopping in Oxford Street, Regent Street,
Covent Garden, Carnaby Street, Knightsbridge (Harrods, Harvey
Nichols), trendy Camden Market (pleasant 20 min stroll along
the canal) or the antiques market in nearby Islington (10
min walk).
Heading East, you can wander around the City of London,
Europe's financial centre with its famous buildings (St
Paul's Cathedral, the Gherkin, Tower Bridge, Wren churches)
and visit the medieval Tower of London. Buckingham Palace,
St James' Park, Hyde Park and Notting Hill are a short bus
or tube ride to the West.
There is so much to see and experience in the metropolis;
art galleries, theatres, clubs, rock and pop concerts, classical
music performances, jazz clubs, comedy clubs, cinema, sporting
events - there is an ever changing variety of things to
do. The house has an A-Z map book, some guide books and
restaurant guides to help you get the most out of your stay
in central London as well as a considerable library of books,
videos and dvds.
If you are planning on visiting other areas of the UK,
St Pancras makes an excellent base as it is now Europe's
largest transport hub. You can be in Paris in 2.5 hours,
Cambridge in 1 hour, York in 3 hours or Edinburgh in 5 hours.
Just walk round the corner and get on a train.
Practicalities
There is a well-stocked supermarket at the end of Balfe
St and a variety of restaurants in the local area. This
Googlemap shows some of them.
You will find a black folder of useful information in
the ground floor living room of the house. It includes details
of nearest post office, chemist, swimming pool, doctor etc
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