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Somers Town, London
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Somers Town, named after the Somers family who owned the land, is an area of London south of Camden Town. Historically, the locality known as Somers Town was the whole of the triangular space between the Hampstead, Pancras, and Euston Roads. Modern Somers Town is generally regarded as being the area bounded by Euston Road, Eversholt Street, Crowndale Road, Pancras Road and the railway approaches to St Pancras Station; that is to say, the general vicinity of Chalton St.
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Encyclopedia
Somers Town, named after the Somers family who owned the land, is an area of London south of Camden Town. Historically, the locality known as Somers Town was the whole of the triangular space between the Hampstead, Pancras, and Euston Roads. Modern Somers Town is generally regarded as being the area bounded by Euston Road, Eversholt Street, Crowndale Road, Pancras Road and the railway approaches to St Pancras Station; that is to say, the general vicinity of Chalton St. Vehicular through traffic is not heavy, and is confined by traffic calming and other measures to a few North/South arterial throughways.
History
The area has been largely influenced by the three mainline north London railway termini: Euston (1838), St. Pancras (1868) and Kings Cross (1852), together with the Somers Town railway and canal goods depot (1887), where the British Library now stands.
Somers Town ward used to include a number of hospitals including Elizabeth Garret Anderson, National Temperance and St. Pancras Hospital (formerly the St Pancras Workhouse). They have all closed since 1980. The large forbidding red brick building complex to the north of St. Pancras Gardens which was St. Pancras Hospital has, more recently, housed non-resident UCL Hospital nurses, and is now the HQ of Camden Primary Care NHS Trust. It also accommodates parts of Islington Primary care Trust, St. Pancras Coroner's Court and a small 'day hospital'. St. Pancras Old Church is adjacent to 'the workhouse' and is one of the oldest churches in London. Within the churchyard are many memorials to Victorian dignitaries.
In 1784, the first housing was built at the "Polygon", now the site of a council block of flats called "Oakshott Court". The development was not entirely successful and the land was subsequently sold off in smaller lots which attracted people escaping from the French Revolution until overcrowding became manifest. Mary Wollstonecraft, writer, philosopher and feminist, lived on this site.
Improvement of the slum housing conditions was first undertaken by St. Pancras Council in 1906, and by the St. Pancras House Improvement Society (subsequently the St. Pancras and Humanist Housing Association) which was established by a Church of England priest, Father Basil Jellicoe in 1924. The Society's Sidney Street Estate incorporated sculpture panels of Doultonware designed by Gilbert Bayes, and the Drummond Estate had ornamental finials for the washing line posts designed by the same artist (they have now been replaced by replicas). Further social housing was built by the London County Council, which began construction of the Ossulton Street estate in 1927. There remains a small enclave of older Grade 2 listed houses.
Sir William Collins school, established in the 1890s and later renamed South Camden Community School, is the main state secondary school in the area. A large sports centre, was built on part of the school playground. The building is leased to a charitable trust which is jointly managed by the school and University College London Union, based just south of Euston Road. It is used for 17% of available hours by UCLU's sports teams for training and home matches and for recreational sport by UCL students. As part of Building Schools for the Future plans to expand the school, it is probable that the sports centre will be reintegrated back into the school campus.
In addition to the large secondary school, there are three primary schools, Edith Neville (state), St. Aloysious (state-aided Catholic) and St Mary and St. Pancras (state-aided Church of England). The latter has been rebuilt, beneath four floors of University College London (UCL) accommodation units. UCL is based a few hundred yards to the south of Euston Road and is a major employer of local residents.
In the 1980s, some council tenants took advantage of the 'right to buy' scheme, and bought their homes with a substantial discount, later moving away from the area into the outer suburbs of North London. This led to an influx of young semi-professional people, resulting in a changing population and a more diverse place to live.
Today
Somers Town Market has a flourishing open street market, held in Chalton Street, every Friday. A festival is held every year in July on the site of the market.
Major construction work along the eastern side of Somers Town is nearly concluded at the time of writing in 2008, as redevelopment for the Channel Tunnel rail terminal at St. Pancras has been completed.
An area of land at Brill Place that was left over after the British Library redevelopment was scaled back, and which was subsequently used partly as the site offices for the Chunnel terminal development, and partly to allow for excavation of a tunnel for the new Thameslink station, has been chosen as the site for the UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation (UKCMRI). The joint promoters of the project, the Medical Research Council, Wellcome Foundation and University College London have promoted the site as a vital centre for both fundamental research and related translational research that can be commercially exploited by the British pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. However, the project is deeply contentious and was contested by both local councilors and a large group of Somers Town residents.
In 2008, Somers Town became the title and subject of a film by British director Shane Meadows funded by Eurostar. Filming took place almost entirely in and around Phoenix Court, a low rise council property in Purchese Street.
Notable residents
- Joe Cole, England footballer
- Cardinal Francis Aidan Gasquet, born there 5 Oct 1846
- Jimmy McDonald, boxer
- Fred Titmus, born there
- Mary Wollstonecraft, early feminist
- William Godwin, Enlightenment philosopher
- Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Mary Shelley), most famous for her novel Frankenstein, was born at 29 Polygon Square in 1797.
- Charles Dickens lived in the Polygon and also in nearby Bayham Street in Camden Town; he wrote of the gravediggers in St Pancras Churchyard
- Guy-Toussaint-Julien Carron, French priest who fled the French Revolution and established the chapel of St. Aloysius and other institutions in the area.
- John Addison, Cambridge professor of music, lived in Camden Cottages until his death in 1844.
- Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, French poets, ran away together from Paris and settled in Somers Town
- Antonio Puigblanch (1775-1840). Author of The Inquisition Unmasked, London, 1816.
Transport and locale
Nearby areas
Nearest Railway stations
See also
External links
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