King's Cross facade

During the two periods when we lived in the east of England we frequently visited London using the east coast mainline railway connection with the capital. The terminus of the trains was (and still is) King's Cross and this, in time, became my favourite railway station. I liked it for its simple, relatively unadorned "form follows function" facade where, in the manner of the west end of a cathedral, the external arches express the internal arched spaces - in the former the nave and aisles, in the latter the arches above the lines and platforms. It helped, of course, that King's Cross is next door to my second favourite London terminus - St Pancras!

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Pavement fountains

It has been interesting to see the spread of "pavement fountains" in recent years. I've come across several in Britain and I've seen them in other countries too. They are a magnet for young children and dogs in hot weather, and have their attractions for older folk who are young at heart. What draws children, and what leads to them getting wetter than they perhaps intended, is the apparent randomness of the way in which they turn off and on, catching out the over-confident. The fountains in the photograph are near King's Cross in London, a particularly large example that was offering welcome relief on a hot July day.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

St Pancras-King's Cross pedestrian tunnel

The pedestrian tunnel in today's photograph was opened in 2014. It links St Pancras International with King's Cross St Pancras Underground Stations. The tunnel design is by the architects Allies and Morrison with the integrated "light wall"that features changing art installations the work of Speirs + Major. Whilst the tunnel is visually interesting to adults to children it appears to be absolutely compelling, the compulsion being to run through the zebra stripes completely ignoring the light show!

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Diagrid structure, King's Cross, London

Being a relatively regular user of King's Cross railway station in London, I often pass under its new diagrid structure roof support above the new concourse. And, it being such an interesting piece of engineering (well, to me anyway!), I often try to get another (and better) photograph of its lattice work tubes and beams. Here is my most recent, and possibly best photograph, one that shows off the dramatic purple lighting as well as something of its symmetry.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Evening, King's Cross Station, London

If we travel to and from London by rail we arrive and depart at King's Cross railway station. This wonderful, essentially Victorian building, stands next to St Pancras railway station, another Victorian masterpiece that has quite different qualities from its neighbour. I've photographed the main entrance elevation of King's Cross before in the evening, though on that occasion it was somewhat earlier. So, for this shot in full darkness I stood a little further back, opened the 17mm (34mm/35mm equiv.) lens up to f1.8, and relied on this together with the effective image stabilisation of the camera body, to keep my image sharp. The camera chose ISO 2000 which is quite reasonable should I wish to print from the image

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10