cpchannel's Sunday January 22nd, 2012

King's Cross is featured in the Harry Potter books, by J. K. Rowling, as the starting point of the Hogwarts Express. The train uses a secret platform 9¾ located by passing through the brick wall barrier between platforms 9 and 10.

Platforms 9 and 10 are in a separate building from the main station; also, rather than being adjacent so that a barrier could be between them, they are separated by two intervening tracks. Rowling intended the location to be in the main part of the station, but misremembered the platform numbering. During an interview in 2001, she indicated that she had confused King's Cross with Euston. In fact, platforms 9 and 10 at Euston are also separated by two intervening tracks.

When the films were made, the station scenes took place within the main station, with platforms 4 and 5 renumbered 9 and 10. In the film of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the exterior of the adjacent St. Pancras station was used, as its Victorian Gothic façade was considered more impressive than the real King's Cross station.

When the first film was released, a large floor panel was placed on the ground outside platforms 9 and 10 indicating the Hogwarts Express. It was later removed. Within King's Cross, a cast-iron "Platform 9¾" sign was erected on a wall of the station's suburban building containing the real platforms 9 and 10. Part of a luggage trolley was also installed below the sign; while the near end was visible, the rest of the trolley seemed to have disappeared into the wall. It was common to see Harry Potter fans stop to photograph the trolley or try to push the rest of the luggage trolley through the wall to the hidden platform.

However due to problems with crowd numbers and renovation work within Kings Cross Station, the half-trolley has been moved to an exterior wall on Euston Road.

"King's Cross" is the title of Chapter 35 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which is set in a dream location resembling the station. The station is also featured in the epilogue of the same book, making it the final setting of the Harry Potter series.

The light design for Finsbury Avenue Square was part of a light masterplan for the entire area around the square in the middle of the Broadgate business district: 372.000 sq metres of office, retail and leisure accommodation, and Liverpool Street Station. The aim was to transform the square, a rather unprepossessing space where people wandered around aimlessly at night, into an attractive social space with a distinct identity. But the result does more than that: thanks to the innovative use of lighting, Finsbury Avenue Square has become one of the most exciting public spaces in the city. The open space is structured by a taut grid of LED-backed frosted glass strips, which emerge from the ground to form the supports for the square's benches. The LED's (over 100.00) can change colour, be dimmed and are currently programmed to display 10 'scenes', varying from subtly changing (in the time that it takes to cross the square), to turbulent 'Tsunami' or violent 'Matrix' scenarios. Created by Maurice Brill Lighting Design

DREAMING OF A BUTTERFLY (2011)
45 acrylic tubes are arranged within the display box. Each tube has a "mechanical" butterfly placed within and their movements are synchronised with the sound system - where microphones obtain real time sound of the surrounding area, and amplify the sounds to the internal subwoofers speakers to produce the necessary input to cause the aleatory movements of the butterflies. As the sound captured reach higher volume, the movement of the butterflies increase.

Each butterfly is attached inside to the acrylic tube by a filament that runs to the battery housing. There is a certain amount of realness to it, while it is understated up close (people can see the filament when the butterfly is at a standstill - or the sound volume is low), but from farther away the fleeting butterfly appears to be real and trying to find its escape!

The butterflies are in some way interactive by reacting to the incoming sound, convincing illusion of a very natural butterfly through animatronic technology. The "Dreaming of a Butterfly" inside the acrylic tube flutters and flies around the inside of the tube with true-to-life motion, giving the impression of a real butterfly, so this creates a movement within the tube that appears to be truly random. The users may also interact with the butterfly to flap or flutter its wings on command by producing incoming sound from surrounding area.

Clerkenwell, England, United Kingdom at 4:40pm GMT.

Clerkenwell, England, United Kingdom at 4:39pm GMT.

Clerkenwell, England, United Kingdom at 4:35pm GMT.

Clerkenwell, England, United Kingdom at 4:13pm GMT.

Clerkenwell, England, United Kingdom at 4:09pm GMT.

Clerkenwell, England, United Kingdom at 4:06pm GMT.

Artist : Xylo

For over a century the Whitechapel Gallery has premiered world-class artists from modern masters such as Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Frida Kahlo to contemporaries such as Sophie Calle, Lucian Freud, Gilbert & George and Mark Wallinger.

With beautiful galleries, exhibitions, artist commissions, collection displays, historic archives, education resources, inspiring art courses, dining room and bookshop, the newly expanded Gallery is open all year round, so there is always something free to see.

The Gallery is a touchstone for contemporary art internationally, plays a central role in London’s cultural landscape and is pivotal to the continued growth of the world’s most vibrant contemporary art quarter.

Paddington Train Station at 1:01pm GMT in Belsize Park, England, United Kingdom.

Jump off the train at Kings Cross and St. Pancras - Bike Dock has space for 20 Bikes

Known as ghost bikes and starting to show up all over London, this memorial is for Min Joo Lee, who was also known as Deep Lee she was a fashion student from Korea studying in London. According to the Evening Standard: she suffered fatal head injuries yesterday when she was crushed under the wheels of the HGV.

The cool things to see inside the most beautiful train station in the world.