SOMERS TOWN, LONDON

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. Vehicular through traffic is not heavy and confined by traffic calming and other measures to a few North/South arterial throughways.
The area has been shaped by three mainline railways termini : Euston (1838), St. Pancras (1868) and Kings Cross (1852), and the Somers Town railways and canals goods depot (1887) (now the site of the British Library). Large-scale nineteenth century railways and canal termini construction attracted large work forces and displaced huge numbers of people who were not rehoused.
Somers Town ward used to include a number of hospitals including Elizabeth Garret Anderson, National Temperance and St. Pancras Hospital,(formerly ''the workhouse''). They have all closed and the large forbidding red brick building complex to the North of St Pancras Gardens which was St Pancras Hospital, 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 Coroners 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 apartments named "Oakshot Court". The development was not entirely successful and the land was subsequently sold off in smaller lots that attracted people escaping from the French revolution until overcrowding became manifest.
Improving the slum housing conditions was first undertaken by St. Pancras Council from 1906, by St Pancras Housing Association formed by catholic priest Father Basil Jellicoe from 1924 and by the London County Council from 1927. There remains a small enclave of Grade 2 listed houses.
Sir William Collins school, renamed South Camden Community School, is a focus of trouble and violence. There is often a heavy police presence at the end of the school day.
Somers Town has a large sports centre, built on the South Camden Secondary School playground, owned by non resident University College London Union. It is used by their sports teams for training and home matches.
In addition to the large state Secondary School, there are three primary schools, Edith Neville (state), St. Aloysious (Catholic) and St Mary and St Pancras (Church of England) which has been rebuilt, beneath four floors of non resident University College London accommodation units.
During the 1980s some council tenants took advantage of the 'right to buy' scheme, and, having bought their homes with a substantial discount, then chose to move away from the area into leafier parts of North London. This led to an influx of young semi-professionals, resulting in a slightly less unbalanced population, making it an even more diverse place to live.
The 1991 census characterised Somers Town as having the highest proportion in Camden, of non owner occupiers, chronically sick people, under 16s, and non car owners (a blessing in disguise in an area superbly well serviced by short and long haul public transport).
There is major construction work along the Eastern boundary of Somers Town ward at the time of writing in 2007, as redevelopment of the King's Cross area and the St. Pancras Channel Tunnel rail terminal. Unfortunately, as happened in the case of the recently completed British Library project built on the site of the large Somers Town railways and canals goods terminal, opportunitites to promote related training and employment of local people during construction and operational phases were not exploited by local leadership.
Somers Town Market is a flourishing open street market, held in Chalton Street, adjacent to the British Library, every Friday.
There is a Somers Town Festival held every year in July on the site of the Chalton Street market.

Contents

Famous Somers Town residents

Transport and locale

Nearby areas

Nearest Tube stations

Nearest Railway stations

See also

Notes

External links

Famous Somers Town residents

★ Joe Cole, England footballer, hails from Somers Town

★ Jimmy McDonald, boxer, also lived in Somers Town

★ Chris Gurney, engineer, also lived in Somers Town

★ Ashley Cole, another England international footballer, also hails from Somerstown.

★ Fred Titmus was born in Somers Town

★ Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (Mary Shelley), most famous for her novel Frankenstein, was born at 29 Polygon Square, Somers Town, in 1797.

★ Guy-Toussaint-Julien Carron, French priest who fled the French Revolution and established the chapel of St. Aloysius and other institutions in the area.

Transport and locale

Nearby areas

★ Camden Town to the north

★ Euston to the west

★ Kings Cross to the east

★ St Pancras to the south-east

★ Bloomsbury to the south

Nearest Tube stations

★ Mornington Crescent tube station

★ Euston station

★ King's Cross St. Pancras tube station

Nearest Railway stations

★ King's Cross railway station

★ St. Pancras railway station

★ Euston railway station

See also

★ Quakers Alley

★ Frank Dobson

Notes

External links

★ an inside view

★ Somers Town Community Association