St Pancras () is a district in central London. It was originally a medieval ancient parish and subsequently became a metropolitan borough. The metropolitan borough then merged with neighbouring boroughs and the area it covered now forms around half of the modern London Borough of Camden. The area of the parish and borough includes the sub-districts of Camden Town, Kentish Town, Gospel Oak, Somers Town, King's Cross, Chalk Farm, Dartmouth Park, the core area of Fitzrovia and a part of Highgate.
History
St Pancras Old Church
St Pancras Old Church lies on Pancras Road, Somers Town, behind St Pancras railway station. Until the 19th century it stood on a knoll on the eastern bank of the now buried River Fleet.
The church, dedicated to the Roman martyr Saint Pancras, gave its name to the St Pancras district, which originated as the parish served by the church. The church is reputed to be one of the oldest sites of Christian worship in England; however, as is so often with old church sites, it is hard to find documentary or archaeological evidence for its initial foundation.
One tradition asserts that the church was established in AD 314 in the late Roman period. There is little to support that view, but it is notable that to the south of the church was a site called The Brill, believed at the time to have been a Roman Camp. The Brill was destroyed during the urbanisation of the area, without any archaeological excavation to assess its age and purpose. The church is certainly very old; it was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, and there is evidence to suggest it predated Domesday by several centuries.
A chapel of ease was subsequently established at Kentish Town to supplement the main parish church, which was replaced by a new building in 1822, St Pancras New Church on the south side of Euston Road. The then-dilapidated Old Church continued in use but was reduced to the status of a chapel of ease. Most of the fabric of the Old Church building dates from a subsequent Victorian restoration.
Ancient Parish
The ancient parish of St Pancras (also known as Pancrace or Pancridge) was established in the medieval period to serve five manors: two manors named St Pancras (one prebendial, one lay), Cantlowes (Kentish Town), Tottenham Court and Rugmere (Chalk Farm).
By the end of the nineteenth century, the ancient parish had been divided into 37 ecclesiastical parishes, including one for the old church, to better serve a rapidly growing population. There are currently 17 Church of England parishes completely contained within the boundaries of the ancient parish, all of which benefit from the distributions from the St Pancras Lands Trust and most of which are in South Camden Deanery in the Edmonton Area of the Diocese of London.
Pre-urban period
In the Middle Ages it had "disreputable associations", and by the 17th century had become the "'Gretna Green' of the London area". On that account Elizabethan playwright Ben Jonson alludes to the area frequently in his plays. It was a rural area with a dispersed population until the growth of London in the late eighteenth century.
Urbanisation
In the 1790s Earl Camden began to develop some fields to the north and west of the old church as Camden Town. About the same time, a residential district was built to the south and east of the church, usually known as Somers Town. In 1822 the new church of St Pancras was dedicated as the parish church. The site was chosen on what was then called the New Road (now Euston Road) which had been built as London's first bypass, the M25 of its day. The two sites are about a kilometre apart. The new church is Grade I listed for its Greek Revival style; the old church was rebuilt in 1847. In the mid-19th century two major railway stations were built to the south of the Old Church, first King's Cross and later St Pancras. The new church is closer to Euston station.
Metropolitan borough
The parish of St Pancras was administered by a vestry until the Metropolitan Borough of St Pancras was established in 1900. In 1965 the borough was combined with two others to form the London Borough of Camden.
In the 1950s, St Pancras Council gained a reputation for left-wing radicalism and was referred to as "the most freakish borough in London.” The council refused to take part in civil defence preparations for war which local councils were obliged to provide. The Home Office monitored Mayor John Lawrence, and as of 2016, still refuses Freedom of Information requests related to him on the grounds of protecting national security.