Italian restaurant near Argyle SquareKing's Cross's garden square and its lost Italian pleasure gardens, 6 minutes from Fiena

Argyle Square is a garden square in the London Borough of Camden, described as the main public park in King's Cross. Almost all of it survives in its original form, and numbers 7 to 47, everything except the north side, are Grade II listed. It was built purely as homes, apart from a church, and today a number of its houses are bed and breakfasts.

The neighbourhood was generally known as Battle Bridge until 1830, when a memorial to King George IV, the "King's Cross", gave the area its new name. In 1769 the site of today's square was in the middle of a field that was home to a famous Dust Heap, a mountain of bones and cinders. In 1824 three developers, Thomas Dunston, William Robinson and William Flanders, bought 16½ acres of the field to build the Battle Bridge Estate.

Then came the Italian twist. Gesualdo Lanza (1779–1859), an Italian teacher of music with a fine reputation as a singing master, drew up a plan with the architect Stephen Geary for a great centre for music and drama here, the Panarmonion. It was to have a theatre, a ballroom, pleasure gardens, picture galleries and reading rooms, and it seems the grounds were even fitted with an overhead railway from which cars were suspended.

• 4 March 1830: the Panarmonion Gardens opened, but the project was short-lived.
• 28 February 1832: bricks, balustrades, gates and plaster figures from the "late the Panarmonion Gardens" were put up for sale, and the ground was to be laid out as "a new square called Argyle Square."
• 1840: the first two houses appeared in the rate books, and by 1849 the square was fully built.
• 11 August 1844: the Swedenborgian New Jerusalem Church, designed by J. D. Hopkins in the Anglo-Norman style, opened on the south side. It was bombed in the Second World War and later demolished.

One part of the Panarmonion scheme is said to survive, the building at the west corner of Birkenhead Street and Euston Road. The square's name is thought to come from the Duke of Argyle, who owned property in Kentish Town. Sources: Survey of London, vol. 24, via British History Online, Bloomsbury Squares & Gardens and Wikipedia's Argyle Square page.

It's about 440 metres, around 6 minutes on foot (walking route from OpenStreetMap), heading south-west through the side streets to Judd Street. Staying nearby? See our posts on St Pancras, Platform 9¾, Scala and Camley Street Natural Park, and our guide to eating near King's Cross St Pancras.

Morning: staying at a B&B on the square? Breakfast runs from 08:00 to 14:00, with coffee all day. Try the Classic Benedict or a full English. See breakfast until 2pm and our English breakfast.

Lunch: the main menu starts at midday, with pasta, pizza, risotto and salads. When the weather's kind, sit on our terrace on Judd Street.

Evening: the kitchen serves until 22:00 Monday to Saturday and 21:00 on Sunday, with cocktails and Italian wines from the bar. Catching a train? See after-work dinner.

Guests often find us close to the stations. Celia called us A hidden gem not far from Kings Cross or Euston (Celia, Google review). Ryan and a friend tried this quiet little restaurant near St Pancras station. (Ryan, Google review) And Maria came after wandering around Kings Cross area trying to avoid overcrowded overpriced cafes. (Maria, Google review)

“Very nice aesthetic atmosphere and decoration, good service”

Gabrielle, Google reviews, 2026