The German Gymnasium is a building located at 1 Kings Boulevard (formerly 26 Pancras Road), close to the Kings Cross and St Pancras railway stations in the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London borough in Inner London. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the area of the former boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn, and St ...

. The building, which is currently used as a German themed bar and restaurant, is a legacy of London’s once large and thriving German community.

Construction and use

It was constructed in 1864–65 for the German Gymnastics Society, a sporting association established in London in 1861 by Ernst Ravenstein. The National Olympian Association used the Gymnasium as one of the venues for its first ever Games here in 1866, shortly after the German Gymnasium was opened. Designed by Edward A. Gruning and built by Piper and Wheeler, the German Gymnasium is a -story multi-coloured stock brick building with a roof constructed from laminated wood trusses with cast iron fillets. The roof is an important early example of the use of laminated timber to give broad spans. The roof trusses – some 20m wide – are as experimented with but replaced at nearby King's Cross Station.

London's German community

London once had a large german community. Poor Germans, especially Jews, typically settled in the East End, wealthy or well-connected Germans headed for the West End, while many professional and middle-class Germans settled in north London areas such as

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

and St Pancras.History of london website - https://www.thehistoryoflondon.co.uk/the-german-community-in-london-during-the-19th-century/ The area around nearby

Charlotte Street Charlotte Street is a street in Fitzrovia, historically part of the parish and borough of St Pancras, in central London. It has been described, together with its northern and southern extensions (Fitzroy Street and Rathbone Place), as the ''s ...

, also a part of the parish and borough of St Pancras, was so well known as a German centre that it became known as ''Charlottenstrasse'', after the famous

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

street of that name, Charlottenstraße.

Damage and preservation

Part of the western end of the building was lost to make way for the construction of the new international rail terminal of St Pancras. A new end wall has been created in keeping with the rest of the structure. The building has been listed Grade II on the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, an ...

since January 1976.

Nearby Tube stations

* King's Cross St Pancras

References

1865 establishments in England 1860s in London Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Camden Gyms in the United Kingdom Kings Cross, London Sport in the London Borough of Camden {{London-struct-stub