Tag Archives: King’s Cross

Sep 23 2025
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Art and architecture, Daily Post

Sir Nigel Gresley (without mallard)

Sunday 21st September 2025, 1.15pm (day 5,141)

Gresley statue, 21/9/25

On my regular visits to London I have been walking past this statuesque chap since 2016. The sculpture is of Sir Nigel Gresley, designer of the famous Mallard locomotive, which still holds the speed record for a steam locomotive. The statue is about 7 feet high — Sir Nigel wasn’t, though. Apparently, the design was to have originally featured a duck (that is, a mallard) as well as Sir Nige, but this was left off in the end, after, and I quote the Guardian (via Wikipedia) here; “possibly the most acrimonious argument in the long, pedantic history of the railway hobbyist”.

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Jun 02 2025
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Drummer, outside King’s Cross

Sunday 1st June 2025, 5.55pm (day 5,029)

Drummer, 1/6/25

Judging by the number of ads that covered his pedestal (you see only a small portion of them here), this is what this guy does, full-time. But we all have our social media presence, don’t we.

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Jun 22 2024
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Daily Post, Transport

Tin pipe number 4

Friday 21st June 2024, 3.10pm (day 4,684)

LNER cattle truck, 21/6/24

I spent the whole day, from 1.30am in Toronto when we boarded the plane, until 6.45pm when arriving back in Hebden Bridge, on a series of rather overcrowded tin pipes. If we included Heathrow Airport itself as number 2, this train at King’s Cross was the fourth, and the most overcrowded pipe of all — the East Coast main line going into spasm once more thanks to some ‘operational incident’ or other. But at least I was in a seat. Home now, anyway, and no more flying aboard for a while. I need a rest.

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Mar 19 2024
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

At the serving hatch

Monday 18th March 2024, 9.15am (day 4,589)

Serving hatch, 18/3/24

And so breakfast, and then home again. Had the shot not captured the eye of the woman in the kitchen, there would have been nothing to show here: though I guess his ears are shapely enough.

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Oct 10 2023
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Daily Post, Interior

War memorial, King’s Cross

Monday 9th October 2023, 10.45am (day 4,428)

War memorial, King's X, 9/10/23

Another weekend in London — the third in three months — ends where they always do, namely King’s Cross station. This war memorial stands facing platforms 1-3, and has always interested me firstly because my name (Whitworth) appears on it twice, with an unseen pillar to the right of this shot commemorating Whitworth, F. and Whitworth, W. A., who as with everyone else named on here was an employee of the Great Northern Railway lost in action. I also like this just because it looks good; it was unveiled just over ten years ago, when the station was rebuilt.

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Jul 31 2023
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Daily Post, Transport

King’s Cross, as usual

Monday 31st July 2023, 9.55am (day 4,358)

King's Cross, 31/7/23

Almost every one of my trips to London ends here. Now and again I might leave in a different direction, but mostly it’s on one of the half-hourly Leeds services: we all watch the departures board over there, to see if this will be one of those times where LNER give us all more than about eight minutes’ notice. (Today, they did.)

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Apr 24 2023
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Daily Post, Portrait, Stranger

Giraffe café, King’s Cross

Monday 24th April 2023, 11.55am (day 4,260)

Giraffe cafe, 24/4/23

And so, the trip back from London, and that invariably means King’s Cross is the departure point. I quite like the Giraffe café, on the balcony above the concourse — it’s a fairly agreeable railway station all round, in fact. Maybe the guy eating the sandwich might feel his depiction is a little unflattering but at least it catches the lunchtime moment.

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Oct 25 2022
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Lonely shoe, King’s Cross

Monday 24th October 2022, 10.05am (day 4,078)

Lonely shoe, King's X, 24/10/22

The latest in an occasional series on this blog — Abandoned Shoes, n+1. (A previous episode is here, for example.) As this one is waiting at the top of the subway that leads down and into King’s Cross station, perhaps it’s just trying to get home. I am reminded of a joke from an early series of Red Dwarf about “shoes having souls”.

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Oct 16 2022
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Daily Post, Interior

King’s Cross, early evening

Saturday 15th October 2022, 5.50pm (day 4,069)

King's Cross, 15/10/22

After the sheer excitement of the last few days, at least today was a livelier and more interesting one, involving a day trip to London. It was for work, and working on a Saturday is usually something I avoid at all costs, but this one was worth doing (being connected with my project on St Helena). King’s Cross was its usual busy and attractive self as I began the journey home. The first of four trips to the capital, of varying length, that I am scheduled to make over the next few weeks.

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May 06 2021
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Daily Post, Urban scene

Life in London

Tuesday 4th May 2021, 5.55pm (day 3,540)

Outside McGlynn's, 4/5/21

Back in the long hot days of June 2018 I spent a whole working week in London, most of it here, in McGlynn’s pub on Whidborne Street (see this photo for instance). Finally it is open again, albeit for outside drinking only, so I and the other customers stoically ignore the fact that it is about to rain. Tonight’s real significance was that this was the first night I have spent away from home in 2021. Life, of a sort, returns: but not yet in full.

This is the 99th London shot to feature on here, by the way.

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