Agar Town: A Lost Town
Where the impressive Gothic-style St. Pancras station now sits, there once was a vibrant neighbourhood full of life and activity.
Agar Town was located north of central London on land owned by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, in the parish of St. Pancras.
Before Agar Town began William Agar purchased the lease with 70 acres of land from the St. Pancras estate in 1810. In 1820 the Regent’s Canal opened, which cut across the land and drew trade and industries to the area that wanted to take advantage of the canal for transportation. By 1822, William Agar had sold his interest in the southern portion of his estate to the Imperial Gas, Light & Coke Company, which also used the canal to transport coal for their operations. In 1841 after William Agar died, his widow began leasing out the land in 1841. However, the Agar family leased the land in very small plots with the term being a relatively short length of just 21-years, inhibiting any high-quality development. So during the next few years the working-class population built their own homes with streets called Canterbury Place, Durham Street, Oxford Crescent. There was no street lighting or cleaning, there was no sewerage, and it quickly became synonymous with mud and disease.
As a result of this development, a Board of Health report said in 1851 that Agar Town was “one of the most neglected in the metropolis” and a London journalist reported finding it “nestling, as snugly as ever, by the side of the Great Northern Railway [King’s Cross]…built on a swamp, and running down to the canal in every stage of dirt and decay.”
In 1859, the Midland Rail Company purchased 27 acres from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and purchased the rest of Agar Town in 1860.
After unsuccessful petitions against the company’s plans by the St. Pancras Vestry, the Regent’s Canal, and the Imperial Gas Light & Coke Company, the Midland Railway (St. Pancras Branch) Bill was passed by Parliamentary powers and became law in 1866. It gave the company complete power to purchase necessary lands and houses “by compulsion or agreement.”
While the company had to compensate those who had taken out 99-year leases with the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, weekly tenants could be evicted without compensation. Agar Town was entirely demolished within the space of two months – including its half-finished church – and replaced with railway sidings.
The photos in this blog show Paradise Row, the 1961 Census for 17-19 Brewer Street, St. Pancras during building, St. Pancras now & a block of flats which also now sits on the area.
