A day out fit for a king: shopping, dining and drinking at King’s Cross

If you’re a regular visitor to London and, planning on visiting sometime soon, but trying to come up with new things to do you may not have experienced before, then how about paying the King’s Cross area a visit?

King’s Cross, you might exclaim! Why yes, this one-time Central London blackhole of traffic chaos has, in recent years (thanks, to a large degree, due to the redevelopment of St. Pancras Station as London’s Eurostar terminus), become a hot new retail and dining and imbibing destination. Plus, owing to its naturally terrific public transport links (especially via Tube) it’s very easy to reach wherever you’re staying the capital; for instance, at accommodation London City, like The Montcalm At The Brewery London City…

Shopping

• & Other Stories (King’s Boulevard) – this outlet brands itself as a ‘styling destination’, hardly surprising given it’s stocked with collections from designers hailing from Paris, Stockholm and Los Angeles

• Carhartt WIP (King’s Boulevard) – a boutiquey offshoot of the American clothing and accessories retail brand

• 18montrose’s (King’s Boulevard) – featuring garments for both men and women direct from designer names like Alexander Wang, Maison Margiela, Rick Owens and Stone Island

• Nike Central King’s Cross (2 Pancras Square) – offers two whole floors of Nike footwear, clothes and other products, as well as digitally-enabled services

• Spiritland (Stable Street) – it’s not all streaming! This is the place to head for old-school vinyl and CD music, in addition to audio equipment, accessories and so very much more.

Dining and drinking

• Granary Square Brasserie (Granary Square) – an all-day eatery housed in a Grade II-listed building, which somewhat styles itself as a British brasserie-type affair serving breakfast, morning coffee, lunch and cream teas come the afternoon, while its vintage, leather bucket chairs look oh-so inviting all day and evening long and, come the evening, DJs soundtrack things, cocktails flow and an à la carte menu’s available, filled with dishes like slow roasted lamb with roast vegetables

• Cut + Grind (The Urbanest Building, Canal Reach) – if you’re after burger heaven then you may just find it at this seven-days-a-week-open outlet, given the patties are produced from 100% British beef from the award-winning butchers Turner & George, while the beef cuts are blended and ground on the premises, the pickles are prepared weekly and the ketchup’s readily made; the resultant burgers then might just be the freshest tasting in town (and, don’t doubt it, there are excellent chicken and tuna fillet, as well as vegetarian and vegan, options and delicious local ale on tap too)

• The bar at Caravan (Granary Square) – a bustling, buzzing dinning room with a stripped-back industrial aesthetic giving a view into the kitchen’s inner workings, along with an awesome playlist for mood-setting while you sample fine food and drink from a marvellous menu that includes unusual but fantastic-sounding cocktails (why not try a Dante’s Reserve – coffee-infused bourbon with muscovado and orange bitters?)

• The Permit Room at Dishoom (Stable Street) – an establishment that does a decent job of aping colonial era Bombay, its Permit Room bar is all about fantastic imbibable concoctions that make thrilling use of traditional Indian ingredients including Chai syrup, cardamom and fiery ginger; just be sure to choose your drink so that it’s served over hand-chipped ice and order it by the ‘peg’ (the old-school liquor measure in the Indian Sub-Continent).