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King's Cross sounds like it should have an ancient, heroic origin story, but the name comes from a mocked 1830 monument demolished fifteen years after it was built.

This episode traces the incredible arc of one of London's great train station neighborhoods. From open countryside to Victorian industrial powerhouse, decades of post-industrial abandonment, street prostitution, and a fatal Underground fire that killed thirty-one people. Finally reinvigorated as a global benchmark for urban regeneration.

Along the way, our story takes in, a lot! Boudica's alleged burial ground at Platform 9¾. The graveyard where Mary Shelley fell in love and modern science fiction was born. A Welsh drifter found near the station in 1943 who became a World War Two spy after his death. The poet laureate who saved St Pancras from demolition with days to spare. Shane MacGowan founding the Pogues in a local pub, and fifteen regulars who bought their own pub to stop it becoming a coffee shop. Oh — and Elvis is barred from one of them. The reasons are not recorded. We manage to stop at several historic pubs along the way, because as always it's the pubs that survive to tell the tales of evolving neighborhoods.

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This bonus episode is our love letter to Ye Olde Mitre, one of London's most hidden and historically rich pubs. When we visited recently, the bar staff gave us one of the most friendly welcomes we've experienced in a busy city center pub. So, this episode is our return gift to you.

Tucked down a narrow alleyway off Hatton Garden, accessible only through a passage barely wide enough for two people.

We trace the site's remarkable 700-year backstory. From a medieval Bishop of Ely's palace that hosted John of Gaunt, King Henry VII, and King Henry VIII, through the story of Christopher Hatton (the dancing commoner who became Elizabeth I's Lord Chancellor and gave Hatton Garden its name), to the street's evolution into the world's diamond capital and the scene of the 2015 Hatton Garden Heist.

We also explore Ye Olde Mitre's famous jurisdictional quirk. The the land belonged to the Diocese of Ely in Cambridgeshire, the pub was technically not in London for most of its existence, meaning Victorian criminals could outrun the Metropolitan Police by ducking through its alleyway.

The episode closes with a practical guide to the pub's interior and a warm personal note from Host & Producer Expat Andy after a recent visit.

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The Lord Raglan pub recently proudly announced the launch of their new food menu.

To congratulate the pub on this great news, we decided to gift them with a special, short, bonus episode featuring the history of their pub - The Lord Raglan, Holborn.

Enjoy and share the joy! Send this episode onto your network. It's a great way to support British tourism, and the host of small businesses that are our historic pubs.