- German Gymnasium, London
The German Gymnasium is in Pancras Road, London close to the new international railway station of St Pancras. It was constructed in 1864-65 for the German Gymnastics Society, a sporting association established in London in 1861 by Ernst Ravenstein. The German Gymnasium was designed by Edward A Gruning and built by Piper and Wheeler.
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. These games continued here annually until the first modern
Olympic Games were held at White City in West London in 1908 [ [http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/content/press/2005/press-releases-june-2005/a-celebration-of-construction-at-the-heart-of-europes-biggest-development.en] Camden Council news item from June 2005] .The building was Grade II listed by
English Heritage in January 1976 [ [http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/Details/Default.aspx?id=477693&mode=quick] Images of England site containing some English Heritage listing details for the building]It is a two-and-a-half 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. 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.
Nearby Tube Stations
References
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