Battle Bridge

Battle-Bridge, St. Pancrass,—at the N. end of Gray's-Inn-lane, near a mile from Holborn, and W. end of Pentonville, near ¼ of a mile from the Angel, Islington.

Battle-Bridge, St. Pancras, is at the north end of Gray's-inn-lane, nearly a mile from Holborn, and west end of Pentonville, nearly three-quarters of a mile from the Angel, Islington. It is now called King's Cross, after a new edifice so called, which is now erecting at the intersection of the roads. It is said to have received its former name, as having been the site of a sanguinary battle between Alfred and the Danes. Near this place is the Small-Pox Hospital, which consists of two establishments, one for innoculation, and the other for the casual disease. These useful institutions were founded in 1746, and were held in various places till the erection of the present appropriate and handsome building, which was designed by the late Mr. Johnson, of Berner's-street, who built the Barracks in Hyde Park, and other parts of the kingdom. The first stone was laid by the Duke of Leeds, then president, on the 2d of May 1793, and it was finished fit for the reception of patients, in June 1794. It is a plain, neat and spacious edifice, consisting of a main body, and two wings. In the centre is a cupola upon an octagonal turrett, and the whole is surrounded by a large piece of ground, well laid out, and planted with trees. A very copious and interesting account of this charity may be found in Mr. Highmore's Pietas Londinensis. Its present officers are, the King, Patron; —— President; the Duke of Bedford, the Earl of Macclesfield, Richard Clarke, Samuel Thornton, and James Barrett, Esqs., Vice Presidents; Isaac Solly, Esq., Treasurer, whose office is No. 15, St. Mary-Axe; George Gregory, M.D., Physician; James Cleft, Esq., of No. 23, Red Lion-square, Secretary; William L. Wheeler, Apothecary and Steward; and Elizabeth Deeble, Matron.

Battle Bridge, St. Pancras, at the junction of Gray's Inn Road with the Pentonville and Euston Roads. It is now known as King's Cross, from a statue of George IV., erected in 1836 by Stephen Geary, a most execrable performance, cleverly burlesqued by Cruikshank, and not unfairly represented by Pugin in his amusing Contrasts. The statue was taken down in 1845, deposited in a mason's yard, and broken up. The name Battle Bridge was com- monly derived from a battle said to have been fought here between Alfred and the Danes. Stukeley, on the other hand, fancied he had found in Battle Bridge the site of the battle fought by the Britons, under Boadicea, against the Romans under Suetonius Paulinus. A fragment of stone bearing portions of a Roman inscription, in which occur the letters Leg. XX., was found here in July 1842.¹

The spring after the conflagration at London, all the ruines were overgrown with an herbe or two; but especially one with a yellow flower: and on the south side of St. Paul's Church it grew as thick as could be; nay, on the very top of the tower. The herbalists call it Ericolevis Neapolitana, small bank cresses of Naples; which plant Tho. Willis [the famous physician] told me he knew before but in one place about the towne; and that was at Battle Bridge, by the Pindar of Wakefield, and that in no great quantity.—Aubrey's Natural History of Wiltshire, p. 38.

As late as 1791 Battle Bridge is described as "a small village on the new road from Islington to Tottenham Court."² Battle Bridge, or King's Cross, is now a very busy place. Here is the terminus of the Great Northern Railway, erected 1852 by Mr. Lewis Cubitt, on the grounds of the Small-Pox Hospital;¹ and only divided from it by St. Pancras Road is the magnificent terminus of the Midland Railway, designed by Sir Gilbert Scott.

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¹ Gentleman's Magazine, August 1842, p. 144.
² Kearsley's Strangers Guide.

¹ Originally built in 1793–1794.
² Forster, Life of Dickens, vol. i. pp. 15, 19.