Little London Guide | King's Cross

Welcome to Little London Guide | King's Cross

Little London Guide is a blog series on Fox & Feather where I explore and show you little snippets of London in more manageable chunks. The UK's capital is overwhelmingly huge spanning over an area of 1,572 km² and is home to over 8 million people so I've taken it upon myself, as a Londoner, to compose smaller guides that focus on different areas within the city. Just think of it as your bitesize guide to the city!

King's Cross is a major rail hub within the city as its railways lead out to some of the UK's biggest northern cities and St. Pancras International is the home of London's direct train routes into Europe making it a district that is often filled with visitors dragging their suitcases through the streets as they touch down in London. In fact, King's Cross is often a visitors' first impression of London as they hop off the train and in recent years it's undergone a huge development. The district has been transformed from what was once a more run down part of London to an area that thrives with new homes, shops, offices, galleries, bars, restaurants, street markets and much more, which has made it a popular place to visit for both locals and tourists.

What To Do

Pick out a new read from a bookshop on a boat

Word On The Water is essentially a secondhand bookshop on a 50-foot Dutch barge that sits beside Granary Square on Regent's Canal where it has taken up a permanent residence. It's a whimsical and wonderful dream for any bookworms out there!

Step on board the floating bookshop and browse through their endless selection of eclectic books that spill out onto the towpath. The owners welcome anyone and everyone onboard with an air of ease as they kick back on their garden chairs outside allowing you to get lost amongst the books without any distraction. If you're lucky, you may even bump into their adorable dog onboard!

Relax In Granary Square

Granary Square and the surrounding area is a the perfect chill out spot in the summer as locals flock to soak up the sun beside the dancing fountains and grass patches that overlook the canal. You'll often find families and friends setting up picnics all around and enjoying the fleeting London summer.

From Tuesday - Thursday every week, KERB's street food market sets up base in Granary Square serving up lunches to Londoners from some of their best independent street food vendors. For the more artsy folk, it's also worth checking out the House of Illustration, which has made its home on Granary Square.

Where To Eat

Vx London

Vx London, or V-cross as it's also known, is a boutique vegan junk food shop located just a five-minute walk from King's Cross Station. They even claim to be the first 100% vegan shop in London as it was initially founded back in 2010 before the vegan movement exploded across the capital. It's pretty small inside but the entirely vegan menu is extensive and includes everything from burgers to kebabs to sweet treats!

If you're looking for salads or quinoa, this definitely isn't the place for you as the menu is solely dedicated to dirty food busting the ridiculous myth that a vegan diet is all greens and grains. That's exactly why it's my kinda place!

Find Vx London: 73 Caledonian Rd, Kings Cross, London N1 9BT

Mildreds

It's no secret that I love Mildreds restaurants as I've banged on about the Camden branch time and time again. However, I only found out recently that my fave veggie & vegan restaurant also have a branch in the King's Cross area too.

Mildreds is a pretty well-established veggie-friendly restaurant that originally opened back in 1988 with their first Soho branch - that's over a quarter of a century serving up dishes to London's hungry vegetarians and vegans! Pictured above is one of their mock chicken burgers, a mock chicken katsu curry with black rice & yuzu sauce & salt 'n' pepper tofu with kim chi puree. I've never been to Mildreds and been disappointed by a dish there and I've eaten a fair bit of the menu. They're also constantly changing up the selection on their menu too, which means there's always a reason to go back and try something new!

Find Mildreds: 200 Pentonville Rd, Kings Cross, London N1 9JP

Temple Of Seitan

Now, Temple of Seitan technically calls this branch 'Temple Of Camden' but it's definitely closer to King's Cross station than Camden Town, so for that reason I'm including them in my vegan food round-up for the area. Temple are essentially every vegan's answer to a fried chicken shop that serves up some of the dirtiest but most delicious vegan junk food.

Don't leave without trying their famous Temple burger ('chicken' fillet, 'bacon', vegan cheese, ranch mayo, lettuce + pickles), their incredible buffalo wings and their Temple cheeseburger ('beef' style patty, cheese, mustard, onions + pickles), which is the closest to a plant-based  McD's burger that I've ever tasted!

Where To Stay

A post shared by St Pancras Renaissance Hotel (@stpancrasren) on Jun 15, 2018 at 7:21am PDT

If you're looking for hotels near King's Cross, there are plenty of options in the area, including the beautiful and iconic St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, which towers over the London skyline as you exit King's Cross station. It's probably one of the most Instagrammed buildings in King's Cross and rightly so as this Grade I listed building is just as picturesque on the inside as it is on the outside.

However, the Renaissance is a well-known, 5-star hotel meaning it's a little on the pricier side with their cheapest room rates starting from £209 per night but would absolutely be worth it if you're looking to spoil yourself a little and be based right next to King's Cross station.

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Dislcaimer: This post was written in collaboration with Hotels.com but all words are my own.