Building site near Euston Square, St Pancras, c.1822

'Building site near Euston Square, St Pancras, c.1822'.

View of a field, in background are three long rows of housing blocks. The large parish of St Pancras developed rapidly in the first half of the 19th century. Its population rose from 31,779 in 1801 to 198,882 by 1861. As rows of fine houses were laid out in the vicinity of the Euston Road, the area was transformed. A hundred years earlier, the parish was remote enough from the city to distinguish some buried in its rural parish churchyard as 'from London'.

The impressive new St Pancras Church (1822) became a landmark. Built in the classical style, its unusual east end porticoes were supported by large female classical statues. Some objected that the overall design bore 'too close a resemblance to a Pagan temple to be appropriate for a Christian church.'