Kings Cross Model Shop

[hayfield]

On 03/01/2020 at 11:51, samc75 said:

This is what its like at the moment. See image below.

I actually ended up in this chat as a result of reading an article about Rod Stewart (musician) in a recent model railway mag, visiting this model railway shop in his youth. 

I currently live round the corner on Pentonville Road and know the building/ shop well, as I was the architect who was involved in converting the empty / derelict shops along Yorkway and the theatre behind into the current restaurant with Studios above and Office behind. That was around 2007-2008. A particular street view you can see the construction work happening.

During Strip Out/ Demolition there were no clues that the previous use was a model shop.

 

 

Just does not look the same place as the one i visited as a teenager, what a sad state of affairs when decent model shops find it so hard to survive, but fast food outlets thrive. 

 

We stayed a few hundred yards up the road for a night in the summer (had an early Eurostar train to catch) sadly not a place I like going to now, its so overpriced, oppressive and in my opinion tourist unfriendly compared to many of its continental counterparts  

[sagaguy]

I used them on a few occasions in the 1970s .i lived in Tottenham at the time and in those days,you could drive & park there in the the side road just past the shop.Up Seven Sisters rd to the Nags Head,Holloway,across into Pentonville Rd & left into York way.Round the one way at Kings + & into the one way side street to park.Happy days!.

 

                  Ray.

[Il Grifone]

I could drive into London to pick up my wife when she was working in Oxford Street in 1974. Times have changed....

[Bernard Lamb]

The McDonalds in the recent photos was at one time a betting shop.

It must have been around 1969 when I was working for a couple of days just down the road and put a bet on for an evening meeting on my way home.

I went to collect my winnings at lunchtime on the next day and was told by the manager never to come back.

It as a rather large bet on an outsider and he was justified in thinking that the bet was placed based on some insider knowledge.

Bernard

[St Enodoc]

10 hours ago, roythebus said:

According to some, before it was a model shop it was a shop for "models" nudge nudge say no more.

 

1 hour ago, hayfield said:

Just does not look the same place as the one i visited as a teenager

 

2 + 2 = 5...

[Il Grifone]

The area did have that reputation....

[hayfield]

1 hour ago, Il Grifone said:

The area did have that reputation....

 

It probably has a far worse one now, especially with all the stabbings going on in London, sadly an area you need to be very careful in

[Oldddudders]

2 hours ago, Il Grifone said:

The area did have that reputation....

Back in the 80s, Deb was one of the last people to work at St Pancras Chambers, for Travellers Fare. One morning she was in the Post Office opposite Kings Cross, and two "ladies" were asking the foreign exchange person how much the large lire note was worth. The answer seemed to be not very much - "Cor - and I gave the bleeder breakfast!"

[CUTLER2579]

As a young 21 year old I worked as a service engineer and my area was mainly Soho.One of my regular calls was to 46 Berwick street were there was a Clothing manufacturer on the 2nd & 3rd floors but the first floor was occupied by Ladies of ill repute and at first they would regularly accost me to purchase their wares. Eventually the Old Lady keeping an eye on them told them I was there to work not enjoy myself  and I was left alone. One afternoon I was talking to the guys in a mini cab place and asked if I could spend a penny, as I descended the stairs to the  cubicles in front of me was a lady  female sitting on the throne, I turned to walk back upstairs to be told don't worry about me love. There were no doors on the cubicles because of Drug and other undesirable use and the owner could keep an eye on things. It was strange I worked the area for about 3 years and ended up knowing many of the locals,it was very much like a village but not your pretty typical English one. However the doormen on the strip joints and bars would talk to the traffic wardens and say he's working at no 46. for example and I only ever got 2 parking tickets in the 3 years.

I grew up rather rapidly working there.

[andyman7]

5 hours ago, hayfield said:

 

It probably has a far worse one now, especially with all the stabbings going on in London, sadly an area you need to be very careful in

Please no Daily Mail style claptrap that London is somehow a no-go area!

 

I have lived and worked in London all may life. The area around Kings Cross is completely regenerated these days and is pretty much unrecognisable from the fleapit it was in the 70s, (when you had to be very careful round there!). That's why these days no model shops can afford the rents anymore. It's a city of 8.7m people, so more stuff (good and bad) happens across the metropolis than anywhere else simply due to numbers. 

[hayfield]

My best friend who was born and lived the first 35 (ish) years a couple of miles away used to say that, especially when his house value went through the roof, that was until his son got mugged on the way home from school. He moved his family to rural Hampshire after years of telling me city life was best. Yes parts of inner london have been regenerated, and as you say bad stuff happens in most areas. As I said we spent the night in the area, however especially after dark going from the hotel to a restaurant and back we felt far less safe than places similar in both Milan and Turin where we stayed overnight close to the main stations. 

 

I must say in Italy the cost of the hotels are about half the price and far superior, as were the restaurants. Though I guess there are places in both cities far less desirable and a lot rougher.

 

I spent 20 odd years working around the west end,  working the odd day a week quite late. I felt safe both walking and using the tube. I would be far more careful now and keep to commuting hours !!

Edited January 6, 2020 by hayfield

[andyman7]

There is good and bad everywhere, and one's own experiences are obviously going to influence things. But Kings Cross has really been transformed in the last few years!

[Oldddudders]

Even further off-topic, we went to the pub at 15.00 on Saturday, and found the yard behind it had a police presence, as it still did a couple of hours later when we left. We now learn a man had been stabbed to death in a flat in the adjacent building, and two men have been arrested. 

 

This was Crewe, Cheshire. It happens in all sorts of places these days. 

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

I grew up largely in leafy WGC, 20 miles North. So KX was where one arrived going into Town, known the area since knee high to nothing as my family had many friends in that area of North London. A little after I had left secondary ed. the WGC school which my sibs were still attending had its tranquillity disturbed on a December morning, effing and blinding George Overy the caretaker having tripped over the naked body of a young woman, sadly murdered there, while on his way to light up the school heating plant in the wee small hours. How our London based contemporaries were impressed, nothing like that happened at their schools.

 

RIP Jill James.

19 hours ago, CUTLER2579 said:

... I worked the area for about 3 years and ended up knowing many of the locals,it was very much like a village but not your pretty typical English one...

That says it all to me.

[roythebus]

I've been a regular visitor to the Kings Cross area most of my life, having been a regular at the MRC since 1964, then working in the model shop in 68/69; hen a secondman at KX 76-78, whilst till being a regular at the MRC until about 1992. Never seen any trouble there part from the odd drunks, never been threatened at any time of day or night around there.

[Enterprisingwestern]

7 hours ago, roythebus said:

I've been a regular visitor to the Kings Cross area most of my life, having been a regular at the MRC since 1964, then working in the model shop in 68/69; hen a secondman at KX 76-78, whilst till being a regular at the MRC until about 1992. Never seen any trouble there part from the odd drunks, never been threatened at any time of day or night around there.

 

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story!

 

Mike.

[hayfield]

I accept the amount of trouble is minimal in relationship to the numbers going through the area, and the chances of being affected is also minimal. So what you are saying is factual, so its definitely a case of perception against reality.

 

However the chances of being affected by crime are far greater in this part of the city than some other parts ( its by far not the worst part of London), also the time of day will also increase or decrease your chances of being affected. If you are used to an area you not only feel safer but I guess are actually safer.

[Ben B]

We stayed in London for a few nights in the summer last year (me, wife, and the 2 younger foster-daughters whilst eldest was abroad with the Scouts).  I remember Kings Cross from the late 1990's and early 2000's as a visiting student when London felt like mainly building sites, but this time when we visited I have to say I found the place a little oppressive... not so much the crime aspect people worry about, it felt like anywhere else I've lived atmosphere-wise (Dudley, Carlisle, Bradford, Keighley).  But everything around Kings Cross-St.Pancras seemed a bit too polished, too corporate and verrrry expensive.  We walked in from Camden Lock along the canal, and around the stations itself it was all 'restored' heritage structures, or steel and glass and trendy offices.  I couldn't really put my finger on why, but it was all a bit off-putting and characterless, and made me feel a bit uncomfortable.

 

Euston Station was still the concrete dump I remembered from twenty years ago though...

[5050]

The best bit about going to London is catching the train to come home......................................

[Kubes]

10 hours ago, 5050 said:

The best bit about going to London is catching the train to come home......................................

And even that's not what it was!

[5050]

6 hours ago, Kubes said:

And even that's not what it was!

I can only go back to Deltics.

[Timken]

Does anyone know what became of Bill Stott and his Nu-sto shop in Murray St ,Hartlepool ? Used to buy stuff from him early 70`s I`d think......long time ago.....

[Paul H Vigor]

Do I recall an eating establishment by the name of Renzo's Restaurant situated a few doors down from the Kings Cross model shop? 

[Paul H Vigor]

On 16/12/2012 at 23:36, sagaguy said:

 

I remember it was called Howell Dimmock,Dudley Dimmock was the co owner of the shop,he came from Graham Farish i believe & the next time i saw him after the shop closed ,he was the manager of Basset Lowkes shop in Holborn.

IIRC I first encountered Dudley Dimmock in his model shop - Dudley Enterprises? - on Charminster Road, Bournemouth, back in the 1970s/early 1980s??

[Grovenor]

1 hour ago, Paul H Vigor said:

Do I recall an eating establishment by the name of Renzo's Restaurant situated a few doors down from the Kings Cross model shop? 

Indeed, Renzo's provided us with regular meals on Tuesdays and Thursdays en route between Kings Cross Models and Keen House. Long gone unfortunately.