In this episode, which is No. 4 in Danny Hurst´s Monopoly podcast series, we reach the square that is Kings Cross Station. He looks at whether this was where Boudica made her last stand and is buried. Danny also reveals why it is built slap bang next to another major station – St Pancras.

Of course, he also covers the Harry Potter connection as well as the history of the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• There is a weird potential connection between Boudica and why JK Rowling chose platform 9 ¾ for her Harry Potter books.
• Unlike many other areas in London, Kings Cross has only been gentrified once and that did not happen until the beginning of the 21st century.
• The station sits on the site of a smallpox hospital.
• Kings Cross has been used in numerous dystopian post-WWII films.
• The station has been bombed twice, once in 1941 and again in 1973.

BEST MOMENTS

‘One-upmanship and money prevailed over common sense. ´

‘Despite gentrification, these issues have merely been swept under the carpet.’

‘This led to smoking being banned across the London Underground network.’

EPISODE RESOURCES

Shop for all official versions of Monopoly here - https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/page/785DC233-0A69-4DF8-98E9-4F50CC50A59E

HOST BIO

Historian, performer, and mentor Danny Hurst has been engaging audiences for many years, whether as a lecturer, stand-up comic or intervention teacher with young offenders and excluded secondary students. Having worked with some of the most difficult people in the UK, he is a natural storyteller and entertainer, whilst purveying the most fascinating information that you didn't know you didn't know. A writer and host of pub quizzes across London, he has travelled extensively and speaks several languages. He has been a consultant for exhibitions at the Imperial War Museum and Natural History Museum in London as well as presenting accelerated learning seminars across the UK. With a wide range of knowledge ranging from motor mechanics to opera to breeding carnivorous plants, he believes learning is the most effective when it's fun. Uniquely delivered, this is history without the boring bits, told the way only Danny Hurst can.

CONTACT AND SOCIALS

https://instagram.com/dannyjhurst
facebook.com/danny.hurst.9638

https://twitter.com/dannyhurst 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/danny-hurst-19574720

Podcast Description

"History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake." James Joyce.

That was me at school as well. Ironically, I ended up becoming a historian. The Unusual Histories podcast is all about the history you don't learn at school, nor indeed anywhere else. Discover things that you didn't know that you didn't know; fascinating historical luminaries and their vices and addictions, the other numerous sides of every story.

We start with the Monopoly Series, in which we explore how the game came to be, the real-life connection between the cheapest and most expensive properties, the history of each location, how proportionate the values were then and are today, what the hell a "community chest" is and whether free parking really does exist anywhere in London. 

If you love history; or indeed if you hate history, this is the podcast for you…