Somers Town, Camden

Sandwiched between Euston and St Pancras stations, Somers Town has been trans­formed several times in its 200-​​year existence

The forecourt of the British Library

At the end of the 17th century John Somers, Lord Chancellor and later Baron Somers of Evesham, acquired the local freehold.

The arrival of the New Road (now Euston Road) improved access to the area and in 1793 Frenchman Jacob Leroux leased land from the Somers family for building.

Leroux’s scheme was not as profitable as he had hoped because war and recession forced down the value of property, and the neigh­bourhood soon acquired ‘shabby genteel’ status. Refugees from the French Revolution bought some of the houses.

No.29 Johnson Street, now Cranleigh Street, was the home of the young Charles Dickens when it was newly built in 1824.

In 1830 Somers Town saw the first ever Metro­politan Police fatality when PC Joseph Grantham was kicked to death while trying to break up a street fight.

The construction of the great railway termini in the mid-​​19th century brought thousands of labourers, while many residents were displaced by the clearance of four acres for St Pancras station and the subsequent estab­lishment of a goods depot in 1875. Some were resettled in homes built for them by the Midland Railway.

The goods depot’s site is now occupied by the British Library. The massive red brick building, designed by Colin St John Wilson, opened in 1998 after years of contro­versial delays, replacing the historic reading rooms of the British Museum. Inside it is more inspiring than one might guess from the rather brutal exterior. In front of the library is a large piazza, with a bronze statue of Isaac Newton and an amphi­theatre that is occasionally used for outdoor events.

Most of the streets behind the library are now filled with late 20th century council housing. The resid­ential mix is multi-​​ethnic, with an especially strong Bangladeshi presence – contrary to the monochrome impression given in Shane Meadows’s Eurostar-​​funded film Somers Town (2008 ).

In 2004 Somers Town became London’s first ‘good behaviour zone’ in a scheme introduced by Camden council, using powers under the newly introduced Anti-​​Social Behaviour Act.

Postal district: NW1
Population: 13,818 (St Pancras and Somers Town ward, 2011 census)
Further reading: Malcolm J Holmes, Somers Town: A Record of Change, London Borough of Camden, 1985
Website: The British Library