Kings Place

Once a lone pioneer in the revival of King’s Cross, Kings Place suddenly finds itself part of the King’s Cross Central cultural hub. Beneath seven office floors and a ground-floor restaurant-bar (with prized seats on the canal basin outside), the 415-seat main hall is a beauty, dominated by wood carved from a single, 500-year-old oak tree and ringed by invisible rubber pads that kill unwanted noise that might interfere with the immaculate acoustics. There’s also a versatile second hall and a number of smaller rooms for workshops and lectures.

The programming is tremendous and includes curated weeks featuring composers as wide-ranging as atonalist Arnold Schoenberg and jazzer Kit Downes. Other strands include chamber music and experimental classical, and there are spoken-word events too. A range of decent food and drink options can be found on-site, with the Concert Bar, Green & Fortune Café and a more serious modern British eatery, Rotunda, all under the same roof.