Over the years I have passed through St. Pancras Station many times on my way into London. Most people will head for the Tube or a taxi to get to the centre, but they will be missing a little gem just around the corner.
Tucked behind the station is St. Pancras Old Church with its large graveyard. I had passed it before, but this was my first time going in. The larger New Church is nearby on Euston Road.
The information board says this is one of the oldest Christian sites in England, but Wikipedia disputes that. The church may be part Tudor, but the tower is Victorian and was built when it was restored to use after being derelict for a while.
It is quite small, but nicely decorated. To the right is a statue of the Roman St. Pancras who was beheaded at 14 after converting.
The cemetery is quite sparse, but then a lot of graves were lost over the years. There is a large memorial I did not capture that names many of them. The one below is for the architect John Soane and his wife. It may have influenced the design of British telephone boxes.
I had heard about there being a stack of gravestones around a tree there. This was known as the Hardy Tree as the writer Thomas Hardy was involved in relocating graves when the railway was built. The tree was an ash that fell down in 2022.
Writer Mary Wollstonecraft (mother of Mary Shelley) was buried there, but was later moved to Bournemouth. Other notable burials were William Franklin (son of Benjamin) and Johann Christian Bach. Charles Dickens visited the church and mentioned in in Tale of Two Cities.
I can recommend a visit if you are passing through the station.
I will tag this in the #ChurchProject that @nicklewis started to record churches on Hive. We can tag them for @worldmappin.
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