Exploring ‘an area of outstanding unnatural beauty’: a treasure hunt around King’s Cross, London

In this paper we describe the Pleasure of treasure treasure hunt aroundLondon’s King’s Cross area. The pleasure of treasure was devisedas a response to Richard Wentworth’s exhibition An area of outstandingunnatural beauty, November 2002. Richard Wentworth sought to explore the characterof King’s Cross by creating an exhibition space that would providesomewhere both where the overlooked and hidden histories of King’s Crosscould be gathered together and also where people from the King’s Crossarea could engage with activities that had been lost or overlooked. Similarly, Thepleasure of treasure sought to take people around the area with a view to exploringits histories and oddities. More than this, it hoped to open up the area to fresheyes, capable of seeing the secret treasures that lay there. In keeping withWentworth’s project, the beauty of King’s Cross lay not only inthe process of exploration but also in the chance encounters (of various kinds) thatsometimes surprise and sometimes disappoint