Belgrove Hotel - Kings Cross
Mar 8th, 2006, 03:23 PM
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Belgrove Hotel - Kings Cross
Hi, I'm travling to London in August with my family from Canada, and came across the Belgrove Hotel in Kings Cross on a web-site. Most of what I have read about this hotel has been good till I checked some reviews, one stated that It was located in the "Red Light District" of London. This is the first time I've heard this area refered to in this way.
Could someone clarify this for me.
Thanks, benoilers
Could someone clarify this for me.
Thanks, benoilers
Mar 8th, 2006, 04:14 PM
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My London friends strongly advised us against staying in King Cross, calling it "dodgy". Try londontown.com for good lodging and other resources. We stayed near Hyde Park, on its north side and loved the quiet residential area, which was also close to Paddington for transit ease. We were at the Hyde Park Radnor, which was a fine little B&B, with a very small quad family room.
Mar 8th, 2006, 11:07 PM
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Kings Cross used to be <b>extremely</b> dodgy. Street walkers, drug dealers, homeless sleeping rough - just pretty nasty.
Most of that activity has cleaned up - mostly due to redevelopment and lots of building projects. But it is still not the best area to stay - especially w/ a family. It isn't close to anything except the British Library.
If you are looking for budget accomodations - Victoria or Bayswater would be better than Kings X.
Most of that activity has cleaned up - mostly due to redevelopment and lots of building projects. But it is still not the best area to stay - especially w/ a family. It isn't close to anything except the British Library.
If you are looking for budget accomodations - Victoria or Bayswater would be better than Kings X.
Mar 8th, 2006, 11:17 PM
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London friends who call Kings Cross "dodgy" clearly suffer from that characteristic neighbourhood insularity that's one of many Londoners' most irritating features. They obviously don't get out of their remote suburban closet very often either.
And anyone who calls KX a "Red Light" district is just inventing things.
I've been walking through the area most days since the mid-1970s. It used to be a diluted version of the faintly sleazy area typical of that around many European railway stations. Every now and again the odd dismal-looking, once- young lady would murmur "doing busines, love?". A couple of the grottier hotels near the station rented rooms out by the hour. Drugs were traded on street corners about as intenively as in most school playgrounds. But I've seen more visible Red Light activity in Toronto on a Sunday morning.
Mrs CS has never hesitated to walk around at any hour of the day or night. Nor did my team of male and female mid-20s when they occasionally worked on till the small hours.
All now past. There's a great deal of construction going on to the north of the station that's frightened out the lowlife. If it hasn't, the area's CCTV system, allegedly the densest anywhere in this CCTV-obsessed country, stops them doing anything.
The construction is nbow advanced enough for the resultant traffic chaos to have, most of the time, gone away as well - and traffic anywhere in London is at its lightest in August, since the town empties.
I've not been half-heartedly propositioned in the streets for about five years now. I even get money out of the area's ATMs without worrying about who's behind me. I haven't been stuck in traffic there for about nine months. Since last autumn, buses have been moving about as smoothly as any traffic moves anywhere in London (KX is about the best connected location in London, with direct tubes to more places than any other station, and direct trains or tubes to Heathrow, Luton and Gatwick).
IMHO, the area has two - and only two - drawbacks. The construction - partly of a new Eurostar terminal, partly about yuppifying a once pleasantly raffish quarter, but scheduled to go on for another eighteen months - is undermining some of the area's small businesses, like its quirky Ethiopian and home-cooking Japanese places. Who knows whether they'll survive? It also means the layout of KX tube station changes practically every day. It's just about London's busiest, so navigating it at peak hours can be tricky, especially with heavy luggage. But then, there's no peak hour in August anyway.
But dodgy? I've been serially burgled in Canonbury: my godson's been mugged among the leafiest Kensington villas. The dodgiest thing I've encountered lately round KX are its kebabs. And they're disappearing, being replaced by self-styled gastropubs of all things.
In August, when the tourist ghettoes get stuffed with the tennis shoes and baseball caps, the area's also a wonderful relief from the alien hordes.
And anyone who calls KX a "Red Light" district is just inventing things.
I've been walking through the area most days since the mid-1970s. It used to be a diluted version of the faintly sleazy area typical of that around many European railway stations. Every now and again the odd dismal-looking, once- young lady would murmur "doing busines, love?". A couple of the grottier hotels near the station rented rooms out by the hour. Drugs were traded on street corners about as intenively as in most school playgrounds. But I've seen more visible Red Light activity in Toronto on a Sunday morning.
Mrs CS has never hesitated to walk around at any hour of the day or night. Nor did my team of male and female mid-20s when they occasionally worked on till the small hours.
All now past. There's a great deal of construction going on to the north of the station that's frightened out the lowlife. If it hasn't, the area's CCTV system, allegedly the densest anywhere in this CCTV-obsessed country, stops them doing anything.
The construction is nbow advanced enough for the resultant traffic chaos to have, most of the time, gone away as well - and traffic anywhere in London is at its lightest in August, since the town empties.
I've not been half-heartedly propositioned in the streets for about five years now. I even get money out of the area's ATMs without worrying about who's behind me. I haven't been stuck in traffic there for about nine months. Since last autumn, buses have been moving about as smoothly as any traffic moves anywhere in London (KX is about the best connected location in London, with direct tubes to more places than any other station, and direct trains or tubes to Heathrow, Luton and Gatwick).
IMHO, the area has two - and only two - drawbacks. The construction - partly of a new Eurostar terminal, partly about yuppifying a once pleasantly raffish quarter, but scheduled to go on for another eighteen months - is undermining some of the area's small businesses, like its quirky Ethiopian and home-cooking Japanese places. Who knows whether they'll survive? It also means the layout of KX tube station changes practically every day. It's just about London's busiest, so navigating it at peak hours can be tricky, especially with heavy luggage. But then, there's no peak hour in August anyway.
But dodgy? I've been serially burgled in Canonbury: my godson's been mugged among the leafiest Kensington villas. The dodgiest thing I've encountered lately round KX are its kebabs. And they're disappearing, being replaced by self-styled gastropubs of all things.
In August, when the tourist ghettoes get stuffed with the tennis shoes and baseball caps, the area's also a wonderful relief from the alien hordes.
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