Much of the land to the north of the canal remained open fields. In a move to raise the rather tarnished image of the area, a statue of King George IV was erected at the Battle Bridge crossroads in 1830. The statue attracted ridicule and was demolished in 1842, but the new name for the area – 'King's Cross' – stuck.

The area of London known as King's Cross is named after a short-lived monument to King George IV that was erected in 1830 at the crossroads of Battle Bridge. The monument was a large octagonal structure topped with a 60-foot statue of the king, intended to celebrate his reign. However, the statue was widely disliked by the public, who found it ugly and poorly designed; it was eventually demolished only 15 years later in 1845. Despite the physical monument being removed, the name "King's Cross" had already become the common way for locals to refer to the junction and the surrounding neighborhood. When the Great Northern Railway opened its London terminus in 1852, they adopted the name "King's Cross Station," forever cementing the moniker in the city's geography. Interestingly, before the king's statue, the area was known as "Battle Bridge," which folklore suggests was the site of the legendary final battle of the Celtic Queen Boudicca against the Roman invaders.