King's Cross

Regent Square Gardens

High Holborn · 0.1 miles

A public garden set within the historic Regent Square provides a green focal point in the St Pancras area of north-central London. The square lies close to High Holborn, Kings Cross and Bloomsbury and has been part of the London Borough of Camden since the mid-1960s. The garden was laid out around a large central lawn in the Harrison Estate and first occupied in 1829, echoing the garden-square pattern typical of Bloomsbury’s better-known developments. The southern side of the square retains its original early-nineteenth-century façades, which are collectively protected as a Grade II-listed group, and a traditional red telephone box situated within the gardens also carries a listed status. The site once accommodated two churches – the National Scotch Church, built between 1824 and 1827 and later an English Presbyterian congregation, and St Peter’s Church of the Church of England. Both structures were destroyed by wartime bombing and removed after the Second World War, leaving the surrounding architecture and the garden as the principal features. The park is managed by the London Borough of Camden and remains freely accessible to the public. Entry is from the surrounding streets, with the nearest reference point being High Holborn. No admission fee is required, and the space is open for typical park activities such as walking, casual recreation and appreciation of the listed surroundings.

Cartwright Gardens

High Holborn · 0.1 miles

A crescent-shaped green space set within Bloomsbury offers a quiet alternative to the surrounding streets, with the nearest main thoroughfare being High Holborn. Managed by the London Borough of Camden, the park is open to the public and is bounded by iron railings that enclose mature plane trees, grassed areas and a network of circular walks. A bronze statue by George Clarke, dating from 1831, stands on a granite plinth that records the reform work of John Cartwright, after whom the gardens were renamed in 1908. Unusually for a central London garden, several tennis courts are available for residents of the surrounding buildings and hotels. The surrounding crescent was originally laid out between 1809 and 1811 as Burton Crescent, part of the Skinners’ Company Estate designed by James Burton. Early occupants included a number of prominent 19th-century figures such as social reformer Edwin Chadwick, postal reformer Rowland Hill and writer Sydney Smith. The east side of the gardens was largely demolished in the early 20th century; an Art Deco block, Canterbury Hall, was erected in the 1930s and later incorporated into University of London inter-collegiate halls, including Commonwealth Hall in the 1950s and Hughes Parry Hall in 1969. Those structures gave way to the Garden Halls built between 2014 and 2016, although the tower block of Hughes Parry Hall remains. Several of the Georgian houses, numbered 27-43 and 46-63, retain Grade II listed status, preserving the architectural character of the original development.

Queer Britain

King's Cross · 0.6 miles

A museum devoted to British LGBTQ history and culture occupies the ground floor of 2 Granary Square in the King’s Cross area of London. Operated by Queer Britain Museum Ltd, the venue presents three interlinked galleries together with a shop, and sits within a building owned by the Art Fund. Visitors can move freely between the exhibition spaces, and the site offers step-free access and on-site toilets; admission is free and opening hours are listed on the museum’s public timetable. Founded in February 2018 by former Gay Times editor Joseph Galliano-Doig and Ian Mehrtens, the organisation was registered as a charity in September 2019. After a series of temporary shows, the museum opened its permanent location on 5 May 2022, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Britain’s first gay pride march. The inaugural display, “Welcome to Queer Britain”, drew from the museum’s photography archive, and the first full exhibition, “We Are Queer Britain”, filled all three galleries from July 2022. Following a closure for refurbishment in November 2025, the museum reopened in February 2026 with a new collections gallery organised around six themes—Resist!, Club Kids, Queer Creativity, Body and Mind, Live, Laugh, Love and The World Around Us. Recent special exhibitions, “Queer Print” and “40 Years of BFI Flair”, were launched at that time, while the broader collection remains stored at the Bishopsgate Institute when not on display.

The Lion of Knidos

St Giles · 0.6 miles

A marble lion, larger than life and weighing six tonnes, stands on a plinth beneath the roof of the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court, forming part of the British Museum’s collection. Carved from the same Pentelic marble that built the Parthenon, the recumbent figure measures 2.89 metres in length and 1.82 metres in height; only its lower jaw and front legs are absent, and the eyes were probably once set with glass inlays. The statue originally topped a square funerary monument with a stepped pyramidal top, a form that has prompted scholarly debate over its date, ranging from the mid-fourth century BC to the second-century BC, with the museum currently estimating a creation period of 200–250 BC. The lion was first observed by the archaeologist Richard Popplewell Pullan in 1858 while he assisted Charles Thomas Newton in excavations near the ancient port of Knidos, now close to Datça in Turkey. After the monument collapsed, the marble lion was recovered, transported along the coast and loaded onto HMS Supply by Robert Murdoch Smith before being shipped to London. Since 2000 it has been displayed prominently in the museum’s Great Court. In 2008 the Turkish town of Datça lodged a formal request with the British Ministry of Culture and Tourism for the statue’s return. The monument is listed in OpenStreetMap as a historic feature near the St Giles area of London.

Lincoln's Inn

Gray's Inn · 1.2 miles

A Portland stone monument set within the historic precincts of Lincoln’s Inn commemorates members of the Inn of Court who lost their lives while on active service in the First World War. Erected in 1921, the structure was designated a Grade II listed building in 1999. The ensemble measures roughly 46 feet (14 m) in length and rests on a three-step stone base; a central pylon is flanked by a curved screen that incorporates seating, terminating in piers at each end. Latin inscriptions on the screen and monument read “HOSPITIUM SOC I S / SANGUINEM PRO PATRIA LARGITIS / FILIIS PARENTES”, while the end piers bear the Roman-numeral dates 1914 and 1919 in the apostrophus form. Brass plaques on the interior faces of the piers list 35 names of the fallen, and a bronze plaque on the pylon records a further 66 names in two columns. A later addition includes a bronze plaque naming 29 individuals from the Second World War, among them Prince George, Duke of Kent. The memorial forms part of a wider network of remembrance within Lincoln’s Inn, which also contains a commemorative table, a book of remembrance, a chapel plaque, and a memorial to the 1915 Zeppelin air raid. The site lies in close proximity to Gray’s Inn, as indicated by OpenStreetMap, and can be viewed at street level within the inn’s public areas. Admission is unrestricted, and no specific visitor facilities are recorded.

The Original Cell

Bank · 1.2 miles

The library is first fire-proof building in the country. As a result, the cell doors weigh half a ton each and are cast iron in order to attempt any outbreak of fire. Cell was used to store documents and other archives.