| Somers Town | |
  Somers Town shown within Greater London |
|
| OS grid reference | |
|---|---|
| London borough | Camden |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | London |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LONDON |
| Postcode district | NW1 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| European Parliament | London |
| UK Parliament | Holborn and St. Pancras |
| London Assembly | Barnet and Camden |
| List of places: UK • England • London | |
Somers Town, named after the Somers family who owned the land, is an area of London south of Camden Town. Greater London is the top-level administrative subdivision covering London, England. The British national grid reference system is a system of geographic grid references commonly used in Great Britain, different from using Latitude and Longitude The districts of England are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government The London Borough of Camden ( is a borough of London, England, which forms part of Inner London. The ceremonial counties are areas of England that are appointed a Lord-Lieutenant, and are defined by the government as the Counties for the purposes of the Lieutenancies Greater London is the top-level administrative subdivision covering London, England. The region, also known as the government office region, is currently the highest tier of local government sub-national entity of England, with only one Greater London is the top-level administrative subdivision covering London, England. Constituent country is a phrase used often by official institutions in contexts in which a country makes up a part of a larger entity or grouping England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland This list of sovereign states, alphabetically arranged gives an overview of States around the world with information on the extent of their Sovereignty. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located A post town is a required part of all postal addresses in the United Kingdom, and a basic unit of the postal delivery system The London postal district is the area in England, currently of 241 square miles to which mail addressed to the LONDON Post town is delivered UK Postal codes are known as postcodes. UK postcodes are Alphanumeric. The NW (North Western postcode area, also known as the London NW postcode area, is a group of postal districts in north west London, England. The UK Telephone numbering plan, also known as the National Telephone Numbering Plan, is the system used for assigning Telephone numbers in the United There are a number of law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom. "Metropolitan Police" redirects here See also Metropolitan police. The fire service in the United Kingdom operates under separate legislative and administrative arrangements in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and The London Fire Brigade ( LFB) is the statutory The London Ambulance Service NHS Trust (LAS is the largest "free at the point of contact" ambulance service in the world that does not directly charge its patients London is a Constituency of the European Parliament. It currently elects 9 MEPs using the D'Hondt method of Party-list proportional This is a list of the 646 constituencies currently represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, as at the 2005 general election Holborn and St Pancras is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom covering the southern half of the London Borough of Camden which includes districts of Camden Greater London is divided into fourteen territorial constituencies for London Assembly elections each returning one member Barnet and Camden is a Constituency represented in the London Assembly. A Gazetteer of place names in the United Kingdom showing each place's County, Unitary authority or council area and its geographical coordinates List of places --> List of cities in the United Kingdom List of towns in England Lists of places This is a partial list of places in London, England See List of places in England for lists of settlements in other counties A geographic coordinate system enables every location on the Earth to be specified in three coordinates using mainly a spherical coordinate system. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Camden Town is the district of London, England around Camden High Street, in the London Borough of Camden. Historically, the locality known as Somers Town was the whole of the triangular space between the Hampstead, Pancras, and Euston Roads. Hampstead is an area of London, England, located north-west of Charing Cross. Euston Road is an important thoroughfare in central London, England and forms part of the A501. 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. St Pancras railway station is a major railway station situated in the St Pancras area of Central London between the British Library and King's Cross Vehicular through traffic is not heavy and confined by traffic calming and other measures to a few North/South arterial throughways.
Contents |
History
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). Kings Cross is an area of London partly in the London Borough of Camden and partly in the London Borough of Islington. The British Library ( BL) is the National library of the United Kingdom.
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). A workhouse, colloquially known as a spike was a place where people who were unable to support themselves could go to live and work 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, 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. For the Saint after whom this church is named see Saint Pancras. 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 "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. Mary Wollstonecraft lived on this site. Mary Wollstonecraft (ˈwʊlstənkrɑːft 27 April 1759 – 10 September
Improving the slum housing conditions was first undertaken by St. Pancras Council from 1906, by St Pancras Housing Association formed by a Church of England priest, Father Basil Jellicoe from 1924 and by the London County Council from 1927. Father Basil Lee Jellicoe ( 5 February 1899, Chailey, Sussex - 24 August 1935, Uxbridge) was a clergyman in the Church London County Council (LCC was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889-1965 existence and the first London-wide general municipal There remains a small enclave of Grade 2 listed houses.
Sir William Collins school, established in the 1890's and later renamed South Camden Community School, is the main statesecondary school in the area. Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational Institution where the final stage of compulsory schooling known as Secondary education, takes Somers Town has a large sports centre, built on the school playground, owned by the University College London Union, based just south of Euston Road. It is used by their sports teams for training and home matches but in the future it will be owned by south camden community school as part of BSF plan.
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. University College London ( UCL) is a multi-faculty university institution based in the United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London 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-professionals, resulting in a changing population and a more diverse place to live.
Today
Major construction work along the Eastern boundary of Somers Town ward is nearly concluded at the time of writing in 2008, as redevelopment of the King's Cross area and the St. Pancras Channel Tunnel rail terminal. Eurostar recently become operational from the new complex.
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 that purports to "showcase" the "cultural diversity" of the area and actually helps reflect an absence of shared culture and values expensively cultivated for political purposes by a socially pernicious tax-financed and town hall backed oxymoronic concept of 'multicultural society'.
A piece of empty space left over after the British Library and Chunnel terminal developments is to become a vital missing high tech biological sciences component, that together with units in adjacent areas, will make Somers Town a focus of a 21st century world ranking biotech industry. The project is deeply contentious and has been contesed by both local councilors and a group of Somers Town residents.
Notable residents
- Joe Cole, England footballer, hails from Somers Town
- Jimmy McDonald, boxer, also lived in Somers Town
- 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. Joseph John "Joe" Cole (born 8 November 1981 in Islington, London) is a professional footballer who plays for Chelsea of the English The English national football team represents England in international football and is controlled by The Football Association, the governing body for football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a Team sport played between two teams of eleven players and is widely considered James 'Jimmy' McDonald was a Scottish footballer who played for Bradford City, who he represented in the 1911 FA Cup Final. Frederick John Titmus (born Somers Town London 24 November 1932) is a former English Cricketer whose first-class career Mary Shelley ( Née Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin; 30 August Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus, generally known as Frankenstein, is a Novel written by the British author Mary Shelley Year 1797 ( MDCCXCVII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common
- Guy-Toussaint-Julien Carron, French priest who fled the French Revolution and established the chapel of St. Abbé Guy-Toussaint-Julien Carron (1760 - 1821 was a French Roman Catholic Priest who founded a number of social and educational institutions especially Aloysius and other institutions in the area.
- John Addison, Cambridge professor of music, lived in Camden Cottages until his death in 1844. John Mervyn Addison ( 16 March 1920 - 7 December 1998) was a British Composer.
- Arthur Rimbaud
- Antonio Puigblanch (1775-1840). "Rimbaud" redirects here For other uses see Rimbaud (disambiguation Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (ræm'boʊ or in French aʁtyʁ Antonio Puigblanch ( Mataró, Spain 1775- Somers Town London 1840 Author of The Inquisition Unmasked, London, 1816.
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
Nearest Railway stations
See also
Notes
External links
Camden Town is the district of London, England around Camden High Street, in the London Borough of Camden. Kings Cross is an area of London partly in the London Borough of Camden and partly in the London Borough of Islington. St Pancras is an area of London. Historically the name has been used for various officially designated areas but today it is only an informal term and is rarely used Bloomsbury is an area of central London in the south of the London Borough of Camden, developed by the Russell family in the 17th and 18th centuries into Mornington Crescent is a station in Camden Town in north west London, named after the nearby street. King's Cross St Pancras is a tube station in the London Borough of Camden, on the London Underground network serving both King's Cross and St King's Cross station is a major railway terminus opened in 1852 St Pancras railway station is a major railway station situated in the St Pancras area of Central London between the British Library and King's Cross Euston station (official name London Euston) is a major Railway station to the north of central London in the London Borough of Camden Frank Gordon Dobson (born March 15, 1940) is a British Labour Party Politician.Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic