Ok, we’ll admit to being suckers for an occasional spot of King’s Cross nightclub nostalgia (see our hard hat tour inside Bagley’s just before the builders moved in in 2015, our photo history of The Cross over 20 years, or guerrilla placement of blue plaques on the old venues back in 2013 and you’ll get the idea).
But the opening today of Somers Town Bridge provides some delicious new views of London’s former nighttime playground, from areas previously not open to the public. So we simply had to snap ‘um.
Access to the bridge now allows you to stand directly above the legendary arches formerly know as The Cross, and peer down at what would have been the chillout garden, with its famous waltzer seating.
The old girl has certainly scrubbed up at bit from those hedonistic nights, where trellis, bamboo and a load of flopped sweaty hairdos were once the defining visual cues along this stretch.
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The new walkway also gives misty-eyed 90s ravers a great look at the vast terrace that ran outside all the main dancefloors at Bagley’s (also known as Canvas) and were scene of many hands-in-the-air – or head-in-the-hands – outdoor moments back in the day.
And don’t forget to zoom your smartphone lens up what was known at Lazer Road, home to the flashing dancefloor and throbbing basement techno of The Key.
Check out the new roof going on, too. It’s a fairly amazing transformation of the historic railway-turned-rave buildings already, ahead of reopening and reincarnating once again, as a shopping destination a year or so from now.
But for many thousands of us, from all corners of the world, this whole space will forever happily conjure up memories of dancing ’til sunrise, the groundbreaking TDK Cross Central events, buying chewing gum at the service station before being offered stimulants of more dubious provenance in the shadows, making it past the likes of Philip Salon or Toni Tamborine on the doors, then making friends for life while squeezed into dripping, sweaty rooms often with little room to actually dance.
The best of times.
No doubt more photos soon, nostalgia fans.
Remembering London’s lost nightclubs in our classic feature here
