Tributaries to the Euston Road, the river of traffic which divides the agreeable banality of Bloomsbury from the wilderness which spreads beyond the train sheds of St Pancras and King's Cross, come from north, east and south. Of these, St Pancras Road, snaking between the two stations, is least clear about where it is going. Walk up it and you are drawn into the dark slot - not sure whether it is a tunnel or a bridge - which pulls traffic off, under the St Pancras railway tracks and out to the north-west, to the down at heel respectability of Camden Town and the glistening stucco terraces of Regent's Park. Or you are diverted to the east, pass by the gasometers, and head along Goods Way, into railway land.

LRB 25 January 2001 | PDF Download