St Pancras Old Church is a Church of England parish church in Somers Town, central London. It is dedicated to the Roman martyr Saint Pancras, and is believed by many to be one of the oldest sites of Christian worship in England. The church is situated on Pancras Road in the London Borough of Camden, with the surrounding area and its international railway station taking its name. St Pancras Old Church, which was largely rebuilt in the Victorian era, should not be confused with St Pancras New Church about a kilometre away, on the Euston Road.

History

Parish

Originally, the parish of St Pancras stretched from close to Oxford Street almost to Highgate. In the early Middle Ages there was a centre of population in the vicinity of what is now known as the old church. However, in the 14th century the population abandoned the site and moved to what is now Kentish Town. The reasons for this were probably the vulnerability of the plain around the church to flooding (the River Fleet, which is now underground, runs through it) and the availability of better wells at Kentish Town, where there is less clay in the soil. The church subsequently fell into disrepair. Towards the end of the 18th century, services were only held in the church on one Sunday each month; on other weeks, the same congregation would use a chapel in Kentish Town. It lost its status as the parish church when the New Church on what was to become the Euston Road was consecrated in 1822, and became a chapel of ease.

Oude Kerk (Dutch: "Old Church") may refer to:

Old Church may refer to:

St Pancras, St. Pancras or Saint Pancras may refer to:

Saints

Geography

Sint Pancras (West Frisian: Sundebankreas) is a town in the northwestern Netherlands. It is located in the municipality of Langedijk, North Holland, about 5 km northeast of Alkmaar.

History

The village was founded in the 14th century, after the village of Vronen was destroyed in a battle between Holland and West Friesland.

Sint Pancras was a separate municipality from 1817 to 1990, when it was merged with Langedijk.

References

External links

Coordinates: 52°40′N 4°47′E / 52.667°N 4.783°E / 52.667; 4.783

St Pancras was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in London, England. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, governed by an administrative vestry. The parish was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855 and became part of the County of London in 1889. The parish of St Pancras became a metropolitan borough in 1900, following the London Government Act 1899, with the parish vestry replaced by a borough council. In 1965 the borough was abolished and its former area became part of the London Borough of Camden in Greater London.

Geography

It included Tottenham Court Road, Camden Town, St Pancras, Kings Cross, Somers Town, Kentish Town, Euston, and part of Regent's Park. There are still a few street name signs with "Borough of St Pancras" on them.

Governance

St Pancras was just outside the area of London mortality statistics known as the bills of mortality, and was counted as one of the "five villages beyond the Bills". In 1801 it was included as a metropolitan parish for census purposes and was part of statistical returns for the Metropolis from that date.