Italian restaurant near St Pancras Old ChurchFiena on Judd Street, King's Cross

St Pancras Old Church is dedicated to Saint Pancras, a Roman martyr and the patron saint of children. It's reputed to be one of the oldest sites of Christian worship in England, and panels outside describe it as a place of prayer since AD 314, though there's little firm evidence for a date that early. References in the Domesday Book and medieval features in the building suggest the site was in use in the Anglo-Saxon period. As early as 1593, the cartographer John Norden wrote that the dilapidated church looked older than St Paul's Cathedral.

By 1847 the church was derelict, and it was largely rebuilt in the Victorian era. During the works, builders found re-used Roman tiles in the walls and remains of a Norman building among the old materials. The church is Grade II* listed. Don't confuse it with St Pancras New Church, which is on Euston Road, about 860 metres away.

The churchyard reopened as a public garden, St Pancras Gardens, in June 1877, and it rewards a slow wander:

• The Soane tomb. The architect Sir John Soane designed a tomb for his wife and himself here. It's Grade I listed, and it may have inspired Giles Gilbert Scott's design for the red telephone box.
• Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin. A memorial marks the philosophers and writers, though their remains are now in Bournemouth. Percy Bysshe Shelley and the future Mary Shelley, Wollstonecraft's daughter, planned their 1814 elopement during meetings at her mother's grave.
• A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens names the churchyard in his 1859 novel, as the scene of body snatching.
• The Hardy Tree. For years, an ash tree surrounded by stacked gravestones was named after Thomas Hardy, who as a young architect was involved in moving graves when the Midland Railway was built through the churchyard. The links to Hardy are tenuous, and the tree fell in December 2022, but the gravestones around its base are still a reason people come.

The composer Johann Christian Bach, youngest son of J.S. Bach, was also buried in the churchyard. Background from Wikipedia's pages on St Pancras Old Church and the Hardy Tree. The church is run by the Parish of Old St Pancras, so check with the parish before you go if you'd like to see inside.

From the church, follow Pancras Road south and turn onto Midland Road, which runs past the Francis Crick Institute and the British Library down to Euston Road. Cross over into Judd Street and you'll find us at 4 Medway Court. It's about 1.1 kilometres, around 15 minutes on foot (route from OpenStreetMap). As Anastasia put it after arriving from the station on a winter's day: Straight from Kings Cross to this cozy warm food in December, exactly what was needed (Anastasia, Google review)

We open at 08:00 every day, and our breakfast menu runs until 14:00, with the Fiena English breakfast, a Classic Benedict with ham, Florentine or Royale, and the Tiramisu French toast. From midday, the main menu takes over: pasta such as the Lasagna and Linguine Fiena with chicken, mushrooms and cream, pizzas such as the Margherita and Buffalo, or the Whole sea bream from the grill. See our posts on breakfast until 2pm, pasta at Fiena and autumn comfort food.

Celia called us A hidden gem not far from Kings Cross or Euston (Celia, Google review). And Maria, who came in after exploring the area, described the room as spacious, music not too loud, decor is not over the top (Maria, Google review).

The church is close to plenty more to see. Our guides to the Francis Crick Institute, the British Library, Granary Square and Coal Drops Yard, the London Canal Museum and Platform 9¾ all start from our door. Catching a train? See eating near St Pancras.

“Interesting walk from Euston station as well via the back streets.”

Tina, Google review, 2025